


Some Things Are Bound To Be

by dollalpaca



Category: Canada's Drag Race RPF, RuPaul's Drag Race (US) RPF
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, forgive me father for i am back on my bullshit, i'll add queens as i go, i'm not sure how ilona identifies as but they use they/them, juice is named julia for the sake of the writer, lemon is lena also for the sake of the writer, listen. don't ask what is this, scarlett is a nb lesbian, that's all you need to know, this is me spreading my agenda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25508953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dollalpaca/pseuds/dollalpaca
Summary: When simple office gossip snowballs, Kyne finds herself faking to be Kiara’s girlfriend, the daughter of the owner of the company she works at. Not that she has any complain, though.
Relationships: Kiara/Kyne (Canada's Drag Race RPF)
Comments: 52
Kudos: 47





	1. Some things don't work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEAR YEE, HEAR YEE, I HAVE A NEW SHIP TO OBSSESS WITH. I pulled this ship out of thin air THE MOMENT Kyne got eliminated, because I'll be damned if I'm going to let people forget about her. And now I'm emotionally attached to this ship :') what a wonderful thing being me is. This fic happened because I was doing prompts in my tumblr (@dollalpaca) and someone requested this. It sort of spiralled, and now it's yet another multi chap. God help me. I’m hoping that this will have between 5-7 chapters, because I can’t deal with long multi-chaps at the moment. A big, massive thank you to Emerald (@fromthenorthernskies) for beta-ing this 💓 And to Winter for always being on board with my shit and peer pressuring me to write this.
> 
> Title comes from the Willow Smith song, "Wait a Minute!"

Kyne had been working a little over a week at Schatzi Co. when she met Kiara, though she had heard rumors and hushed whispers about the only daughter of the owners of the company — some said she was a bitch, others that she was a spoiled brat; to Kyne, she was none of those things.

It might just be because she exchanged a total of four words with her, and Kiara treated her as politely as she could be before going on about her day. Either way, she never participated in the insulting comments some of her co-workers made about Kiara, because she didn’t have any bone to pick with her.

Priyanka, her best friend and the one that got her the job interview in the first place, had wisely suggested she stay out of the office drama, at least during her first weeks. She had been working there for a year now, so she knows what she’s talking about; she doesn’t mind when Kyne asks one too many times what did Kiara Schatzi actually do to earn so much hate from the employees, considering she rarely is at the company.

“I don’t know, existing?” Priyanka offers as an answer, while they’re having lunch together at her office. “She’s set to inherit the company once her father decides to retire, that much I know, but I’m not sure where this hate comes from — probably from something that happened before I worked here, but nobody would tell me.” She shrugs, biting her sandwich.

“Oh, c’mon, she can’t be that bad, can she?” Kyne asks, picking at her Adobo. Priyanka is about to answer when someone knocks at the door, and as soon as she tells whoever it is to come in, they see Julia’s head poke from behind the door.

She tells Priyanka that the head of the construction team needs to speak with her about a mistake in the planes for the new project, using that very nasal voice Kyne has become used to rather quickly, and saying in a pretty non-confrontational tone to not shoot the messenger.

Priyanka groans, excusing herself to Kyne before following Julia, who’s still apologizing on behalf of the contratist, and leaves Kyne alone with her Adobo.

Not even a minute goes by when the door is opened again, but this time, it’s Kiara that interrupts in the room.

“Miss Priyanka?” She says, looking around the room and finding Kyne instead. “Oh, hello. Isn’t this Priyanka Kapoor’s office?” Kiara asks, squinting slightly.

Kyne briefly thinks that the red suit fits her so well it should be illegal, but she just nods curtly.

“She just left with Julia, something about a plane for a project being wrong?” Kyne hesitantly replies, though she heard the conversation very clearly.

Kiara groans, rolling her eyes. “How could that woman outrun me when she’s wearing six inch heels?” She asks aloud, barely holding back a laugh. Kyne chuckles.

“I mean, I’ve been working here for a month and I’ve never seen her _not_ wear six inch heels,” she says, though she’s not sure if Kiara pretended to get an answer from her. 

She feels a weird flutter in her chest when Kiara giggles, shooting a smile her way.

“Yeah, I guess that’s probably it,” Kiara replies, “What’s your name again?” She asks, lingering at the door.

“It’s Kyne Aguilar, miss Schatzi,” she replies with a genuine smile. Kiara smiles back, and Kyne thinks the smile suits her very well.

“I’ll see you around, Miss Aguilar,” she simply says before leaving, and Kyne’s stare stays glued to the door.

When Priyanka returns, much later and with a very visible frown in her face, Kyne doesn’t mention her encounter with Kiara, because she doesn’t find it relevant when her friend is complaining about her professionalism being questioned by one silly mistake.

When the day is over, Kyne is just making her way to the parking lot to meet Priyanka when she runs into Kiara again. She’s walking with her dad, and it makes Kyne straighten her back and avoid looking directly at him. She mutters a _good night sir_ as she passes by their side instead, and she’d swear neither he nor Kiara listened, but she nods politely and says a _have a good night_ that echoes in the otherwise silent hallway.

She’s not sure why, but she barely pays attention to Priyanka’s rant about her day, answering with non-committal sounds, as her mind drifted off and replayed the brief moment she’d spent with Kiara.

Yeah, Kyne is definitely skeptical about the rumors surrounding Kiara.

***

Kyne quickly gets used to her routine at the company.

She’s always been good at math and numbers, so being an accountant was one of her first options going into college, though she would’ve been as happy getting an overall degree in math and teaching children.

Her job as an accountant isn’t as dull as she would’ve imagined, though; she’s the one that everyone comes for calculating budgets, how much would they earn if they invest on a certain project and all that jazz — all of this means people don’t necessarily see her as interesting, and therefore she never gets involved in any kind of office drama, which she appreciates due to the fact that her friends seem to be a walking target for drama worth of High School girls.

Priyanka was the one that introduced her to Scarlett and Bo, and though Kyne appreciates their friendship, she has to admit they’re a _little_ bit messy. Just a little. Scarlett and Bo know everyone’s business at the office, primarily because Scarlett sleeps around more than they’ll ever admit to, and Bo is able to charm her way through people’s most pettiest complains about other co-workers. Oh, and Priyanka is there to de-escalate situations that come back to bite the pair in the ass.

So, overall, work isn’t monotonous at all; she has her friends that always have some sort of gossip to tell her — and there’s also Kiara.

Kiara started working full-time at the company shortly after she graduated from college, just one year after Kyne. This meant she saw her a lot more frequently, instead of sporadically running into her at the hallways once or twice a week — now, it’d be a pretty weird day if she didn’t see Kiara around, talking to people, collecting reports and having meetings with other important members of the company.

They didn’t talk much, though, only exchanging words when Kiara came to collect reports at Kyne’s office and they did small talk for a moment before Kiara went on with her day. Sometimes they’d greet each other if they happened to bump into the other at the end or beginning of the day. It was a cordial enough relationship.

That was until one day she comes to her office unprompted, asking her to follow the flow if her secretary, Lena, appears by looking for her.

“She’s more of an assistant that a secretary, you know? But she can be a bit too overbearing sometimes, though I’m sure I would have to blame my dad for that, he was the one that hired her for me,” Kiara rants, and Kyne just lets her, looking up from her reports from time to time to let her know she’s listening.

She’s pretty sure that this is the first time she’s exchanged more than a few words with Kiara, and there’s some sort of excitement — and a little bit of intimidation — bubbling up in her stomach.

“I mean, you’re the boss of the boss of my boss; if anything, you could just tell her to chill or you’ll fire her. That should calm her,” Kyne suggests, and she’d like to believe her deadpan delivery is what causes Kiara to giggle. 

She feels a tad of pride in herself for making Kiara laugh.

“I would, but I’m not that mean — and she’d tell my dad, anyway,” she jokes with a shrug, and Kyne chuckles. “I have to go, I have a meeting to attend, but thank you for letting me hide here.” Kiara winks at her, and Kyne tries to ignore the weird flutter of her heart.

“You’re welcome to hide here any time, miss Schatzi,” she says earnestly, smiling up at her. Kiara hesitantly turns to look at her.

“You know what? Just call me Kiara.” She smiles back, and all Kyne can do is nod dumbly.

Kiara leaves and Kyne goes back to work, until it’s time for her lunch break, when Priyanka, Bo and Scarlett barge into her office and oblige her to accompany them to this new restaurant that opened two streets away. 

She passes by Kiara in the hallways, and Lena is talking her ear off. Kyne catches Kiara’s glance and she shoots her a smile, Kiara returns it in the form of an eye roll as she briefly looks towards Lena and then back at her, a sneaky smile creeping on her face.

Kyne snorts, trying to focus on the ongoing conversation between her friends, but, much like the first time they met, Kiara doesn’t leave her mind for the rest of the day.

If her friends notice she’s like a deer in the headlights, they don’t bring it up, choosing to instead poke fun at Scarlett for struggling to get Ilona from Human Resources to text them back.

***

It’s becoming a common occurrence for Kiara to hide in Kyne’s office. Kyne’s not sure if Kiara should do that as often as she does, but she supposes she’s allowed to since she’s the daughter of the owner — Kiara gets away with a lot of things she wouldn’t get away with had she been someone else.

Such as interrupting in Kyne’s office in the middle of the day, because otherwise she’ll snap at the wrong people, and she doesn’t want that. Kyne doesn’t really mind, if anything, she’ll gladly let Kiara crash at her office if it means she’s doing the company a favor. Besides, she enjoys her company. Kiara is funny, kind and interesting in so many ways; there’s also the fact that sometimes Kiara brings her sweets to compensate for using her as a couch therapist, which is definitely a bonus in Kyne’s books.

It all makes her wonder what did Kiara do to not be so well-liked among the employees, because Kyne really likes her — as a friend, obviously.

Her other friends, such as Priyanka, Scarlett and Bo —but mostly Priyanka— are always asking her why does the daughter of their boss spend so much time with her, especially during work hours, and Kyne just shrugs and gives vague excuses. She won’t tell anyone Kiara talks shit about the other CEOs like it’s her actual job, she’s not a snitch.

Scarlett likes to joke that Kiara has a crush on her and Kyne should take advantage of that, seduce her and get all her money. Kyne just doesn’t pay attention to them, and flat out denies such thing being a possibility. Because not even in ten lives Kiara would like her like that for more than obvious reasons.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Kyne,” Scarlett says one day, on their way to the parking lot. “Like, your flirting is shit, but you’re not _that_ bad looking,” they tease, earning a few chuckles from the girls and an eye roll from Kyne at that.

“Says the one that _still_ can’t get Ilona Verley to go out with them,” Kyne quips back, intelligently derailing the conversation thanks to Scarlett going on a tangent about how they don’t care if Ilona texts them back or not, and how they’re water under the bridge.

Kyne just brushes off her friends’ constant teasing, and doesn’t really bring it up to Kiara, because why would she? It’s just playful nagging, and she doubts anyone else gives two craps about what Kyne does and not.

Well, so she thought.

Kiara comes to her office one day, and nothing seems strange, not even when she settles a cup of coffee in her desk and offers her a bagel. She figures it’s just Kiara thanking her for never complaining when she comes to her for venting.

“Do you have plans on Saturday?” She asks out of the blue, and Kyne cocks a brow, taking a sip from her coffee. She shakes her head no, and Kiara bites her lower lip. “So, uh, the charity ball is on Saturday, I think you know that. And I’m fairly sure you’ve heard the rumors--”

“Wait, what? What rumors?” Kyne cuts her off, knitting her brows in a frown and staring at Kiara, who looks absolutely mortified.

“Oh, no, you have no idea, do you?” She asks, and Kyne can swear this is the first time she’s seen Kiara blush. She looks cute with her cheeks crimson red, actually; it’s a nice change from the poised woman she’s come to know.

“Of what?” Kyne presses, trying to not get distracted by Kiara.

Kiara proceeds to tell her through gritted teeth how many people at the company think they’re dating — apparently her constant visits to Kyne’s office had caused some eyebrows to raise their way. Kiara never bothered to say anything about those rumors, because as the future owner of the company she shouldn’t dignify cheap office gossip with an answer, but then shit hit the fan when the rumors ended up arriving to her father’s ears, and now he expected Kiara to bring her alleged girlfriend to the charity ball.

Kyne sits still at her chair, owlishly blinking at Kiara for a moment too long. She tilts her head, waiting for Kiara to say it’s all a joke and she just wants her to calculate something for her.

But that doesn’t happen, and Kiara just silently stares back.

“That would explain the looks Susan from customer support gives me when I pass from her office on my way to get lunch,” Kyne muses absentmindedly. In fact, if she thinks about it for more than a second, it makes a whole lot of sense. Now she gets why Jenna from the architecture team went on a tangent about how much she hates people that sleep with their bosses for a raise whenever Kyne was around, raising her voice a tad too loud so everyone would hear.

No wonder why one time Priyanka scolded her for not interacting more with their co-workers, saying she’d benefit by being up to date with the office gossip.

“Have you thought of telling your father it was all a misunderstanding?” She proceeds after a few moments, and Kiara shrugs.

“He was excited that I was finally going out with someone, and I didn’t want to ruin his happiness,” she explains, and Kyne cocks a brow. She always assumed Kiara was constantly dating people — with how gorgeous she is, it didn’t seem that much of a stretch.

Kyne thinks it through for an entire minute, and comes to the conclusion that though it is definitely a bad idea (lies have short legs, they say), there’s something that drives her to say yes. It might just be that she’ll never get to be with a pretty girl like Kiara ever again, fake or not, so she decides to bite the bullet.

“If I don’t get a raise after this, I’m going to work for your rival company and sell them all your corporative secrets,” Kyne deadpans, and it takes Kiara a full minute to understand that is Kyne’s way of accepting to be her fake girlfriend for the charity ball.

Kiara lets out a sigh of relief, slouching in her chair and thanking Kyne profusely, promising to take her shopping on Friday to find a dress for the charity ball. Kyne jokingly says she’ll suck the money out of Kiara’s credit card if given the opportunity.

“As if that was possible, darling.” She winks at her, and something inside Kyne twitches. “I gotta go, but I’ll text you later to sort this out.”

“Wait,” she interrupts her again, before she leaves. “How do you have my number?”

Kiara smiles mischievously, and Kyne mentally goes over what she ate today, because her stomach twitches again.

“I have my ways of finding out things,” Kiara says, winking one last time before she exits Kyne’s office.

Once she’s alone, Kyne wonders out loud what the fuck had she messed herself into.


	2. Some people lie to me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kiara is twenty-two today, and what a better way to celebrate than with a new chapter? I’m very much in love with this fic, and a third chapter should be on the way. Hope you enjoy this one though! It didn’t turn out according to my plan, but oh well. Shit happens.

If Kiara is completely honest, she has no idea why she started “hiding” at Kyne’s office in the first place.

Well, maybe she does have some sort of idea; she was mad at Wilbur, that one bitch of a CEO her father was — is, sadly — great friends with, for having completely dismissed her when she tried to express her opinions during a meeting, and spoke down to her as if she was a little kid and not an adult.

She had left the meeting seeing red, and the fact Lena was all over her, reminding her of all the things she had to do and blurting out message after message didn’t help. Kiara understood that it was just her job, but god damn it, Lena couldn’t understand simple hints for the sake of her life. So, before she undeservingly snapped at her secretary, she came up with a half-assed excuse to leave her office; she just needed to wander around to calm herself down.

Her first thought was to come to Rita, because she always knew what to say and how to calm her down, and Rita’s secretary, Tynomi, was probably the bluntest, funniest woman in the entire company. They always managed to cheer her up. Unfortunately, Rita had yet another meeting — Kiara swore she was the only CEO besides her that actually did her job.

She was wandering around the offices of the accountants when she saw Kyne’s door; Kyne had _something_ that pulled Kiara like a magnet, though she couldn’t exactly pinpoint what. Maybe it was the fact she made her laugh within a minute of meeting each other, or that every time she came to pick up or drop off some reports, she always managed to, at least, get a giggle out of her. And god knew she needed a laugh now. 

So she knocked on an impulse she would later be grateful for. 

Kyne was totally entitled to not want to listen to her problems or to kick her out (which she wouldn’t do, because everyone was afraid of her, apparently), but she let her stay, and offered her as much of her attention as she could, considering she still had work to do. And she even gave her advice — well, of sorts. 

“I mean, you’re the boss of the boss of my boss; if anything, you could just tell her to chill or you’ll fire her. That should calm her,” she had said, placing her chin in her palm, her voice coming out as monotonous, though Kiara distinguished a playful gleam in her eyes. A giggle came out of her mouth before she could stop it.

“I would, but I’m not that mean — and she’d tell my dad, anyway.” She shrugged, slightly rolling her eyes. She heard Kyne chuckle, and her heart skipped a beat. She bit the inside of her cheek. “I have to go, I have a meeting to attend, but thank you for letting me hide here.” She winked at her out of yet another impulse, but Kyne didn’t seem to mind, since she smiled at her in a way that knocked the air out of her lungs.

Okay, that was weird, Kiara thought.

“You’re welcome to hide here any time, miss Schatzi,” Kyne said, with that pretty smile still on her face. Kiara turned to see her, grabbing the handle of the door for dear life.

“You know what? Just call me Kiara.” She smiled bashfully and left, walking back to her office as fast as her heels allowed her.

She had shut the door in front of Lena’s face when she wouldn’t stop asking where she went, and had silently resolved that she wouldn’t go back to Kyne’s office unless it was for the sake of her job. 

Kiara was also a pathological liar.

She came back one, two, three, who knows how many times, again. She’s not sure, but she knows it was enough for it to become a habit. Sometimes she’d also bring some sort of sweet so Kyne wouldn’t think of her as such a burden. Kiara knew she would get annoyed of her visits at some point, but that had yet to happen, and she was glad for it.

But their almost daily meetings hadn’t escaped the eye of the other employees, much to Kiara’s annoyance.

After setting the record straight with Lena and asking her to be a little less suffocating, they had managed to struck up a friendly relationship, built on the fact that Kiara asked her to be as blunt as possible with her, and in exchange she was honest with her when she went to visit Kyne in the middle of work hours. So it didn’t surprise Kiara when Lena had told her without hesitation that a good chunk of the employees thought she was sleeping with Kyne.

While Lena being blunt with her wasn’t that out of the common — her employees thinking she was sleeping with Kyne? That sure was a hell of a shock.

“You commit a mistake _once_ and people vow to not forget it ever again,” she had grumbled once Lena was done telling her all about the gossip surrounding her and Kyne.

Lena cocked one of her perfectly painted eyebrows, intently staring at her. “Come again?”

Kiara quickly dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “Nothing.”

She tried to not pay attention to what the people said about her — in fact, she was great at it — because she shouldn’t pay any mind to cheap office gossip. So Kiara went on with her life, without letting the rumors stop her from visiting Kyne.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before the rumors reached her father.

Kiara’s father is a lovely man, he accepts her for who she is and always seeks out for her wellbeing. Though he makes misplaced comments more often than not, he never does it with ill-intent — oh, and there’s also the fact that he tried to turn Kiara into the son he never had, and when she came out he thought it was his fault that she was a lesbian. She finds it funny now, though she can’t say it was funny at that moment.

And because he cares about her, he’s always asking if she has had any dates recently, or if she’s going out with anyone at the company. It’s safe to say that when one of his friends came to him with the gossip about his own daughter, he got excited rather than offended.

“Am I going to meet your girlfriend at the ball next weekend?” He asks over dinner, and Kiara nearly chokes with her lasagna.

Now that’s why he wanted to have dinner out with her; he usually stays late at work, and Kiara ends up eating dinner with her mom and their three dogs.

Kiara swallows her lasagna and coughs a little before speaking. “Girlfriend? What do you mean?” She squints, tilting her head a little. She knows he’s talking about Kyne, but she prefers to play dumb.

Her father gives her a complicit smile, the kind he’d give her when she was little and they had gotten mud on their clothes after Kiara’s mom told them to not get dirty. She hasn’t seen that smile in years.

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed, pumpkin. I’m glad you’re seeing someone! You’re young, you should enjoy your life.” He sounds so supportive and _happy_ , that Kiara can’t bring herself to tell him it’s all just a huge misunderstanding.

So Kiara decides to bite the bullet and tell her dad she’s dating one of the accountants of the company, and the proud smile on his face makes it more difficult to lie to him. But at the same time, it isn’t hard to list off all the things she likes about Kyne, because she does like her — as a friend, clearly, but her dad doesn’t have to know that.

He promises her he’ll get Kyne on the guest list of the charity ball, so she can properly introduce her to him and her mother, as well as their friends. Though Kiara nods and thanks him with a huge smile that she hopes doesn’t look forced, her hands are sweating and she knows right away that the first thing she’ll have to do tomorrow morning is talk with Kyne.

***

It’s Wednesday morning, and Kiara buys a cup of coffee and a bagel on her way to work, because she knows what she’s about to ask Kyne will probably make her hate her guts. She wouldn’t blame her.

Surprisingly, it goes far better than she expected. Kyne says _yes_ , in her very Kyne-like way. And Kiara can’t believe it. What surprises her more is the fact Kyne seemingly had no idea about these rumors; if Kiara is lucky, she has no idea about what people said about her even before she started working full-time at the company.

She promises to take her shopping for a dress and leaves her office with her heart plummeting in her ears, the sight of Kyne’s flustered expression ingrained in her brain.

Kiara goes back to her office, walking past Lena and asking her to pretty please get Kyne’s phone number from the company’s records. Kiara notices she’s curious, but Lena doesn’t ask _why_ she wants it or _how_ she doesn’t have it, considering she spends almost every day with her; she just cocks a brow her way and replies with a polite _yes ma’am_.

She tries to get her job done, to answer the e-mails still pending in her inbox and call back all the people she has to call back, but the only thing on her mind is Kyne. She’s not sure if it’s the guilt of having dragged her, or the impatience for Friday to arrive bubbling up in her stomach, but as soon as it’s time for lunch she sprints off to Rita’s office.

Rita always knows what to say, and right now, Kiara needs someone to tell her this isn’t an incredibly bad idea, even though that would be a lie.

Before she notices she’s knocking on her door and finds Rita along with Tynomi, who greet her with a wide smile.

“Hey Kiki, we were just heading out, wanna go have lunch with us?” Rita asks with a smile, but Kiara shakes her head no.

“I’m fine, thanks. But I could use your help with something,” she says, fidgeting with her fingers. Rita motions at her to take a seat, as she sits back on her chair and Tynomi perches herself against the desk.

Kiara tries to sum up the mess she had gotten herself into, and she can’t blame them when they try to hold back laughs by biting their lower lips and squeezing each other’s wrist.

“So now I need someone to tell me this isn’t a catastrophically bad idea, and that we won’t get caught lying at the ball,” Kiara dramatizes, and Rita snorts, exchanging a brief look with Tynomi before speaking.

“ _Poussin,_ you leave me speechless. You could’ve just told your dad it was a misunderstanding,” Rita says with a shrug and Kiara groans, folding her arms.

“Kyne said exactly the same thing — it’s not that easy!” She protests childishly, and the older women laugh at her expense. Kiara wants to be pissed, but she’d also laugh at herself, honestly.

“I mean, it’s a bad idea depending of the way you look at it,” Tynomi says, “You can either be the laughing stock if people find out you’re faking a relationship with this woman, _or_ , you can win an actual girlfriend. Depends how you play your cards,” she explains, as if it’s that easy. Rita hums in agreement, and Kiara rolls her eyes.

“I don’t like Kyne like that.” It’s the first thing she says, sounding more defensive that she intended to. “I just don’t know how to go about this. I enjoy Kyne’s friendship a lot, and I don’t wanna lose it if we fuck this up,” she admits bashfully, and their expressions soften up.

“Then I think you should be talking things out with her, not us,” Rita says, with that motherly tone she always uses when she knows she’s right, and Kiara knows there’s no use fighting her logic.

“What’s the worst thing that can happen? She’ll break up with you?” Tynomi jokes, earning a laugh from them.

“If I run, I think I can get to her before lunch finishes…” She mumbles absent-mindedly, standing up and heading to the door. “Thank you, girls. See you later!” Kiara gives them a grateful smile and a wave before she leaves.

“Be careful running with those heels!” Rita exclaims as she’s closing the door.

Kiara walks as fast as she can through the hallways, trying not to trip with her own feet. She anxiously looks around, searching for Kyne’s purple jacket — God bless Kyne for always wearing jackets with unconventional colors to work.

She hears a _ping_ and pulls out her phone, smiling when she sees a message from Lena with a contact attached. Her message reads that she’s sorry for the delay, but she got distracted by someone — Kiara has an eerie feeling that said someone is a woman from the architect team, but she just replies with a _thank you_.

She turns in a corner, ending up in the hallway of Kyne’s office. Kiara smiles when she sees Kyne’s purple jacket at the end of the hallway, walking away with her friends.

“Kyne!” She exclaims, ignoring the ache in her feet as she trotters towards her. Kyne turns around, looking at Kiara with a flustered expression. Her friends turn around too, but their faces read nothing but pure mischief. “Wait up, I was looking for you.”

“Me? Why?” She asks once Kiara is near enough. Her brows are knitted in a frown, stealing glances at her friends, who have their attention focused on Kiara.

Kiara shakes off the nerves, sucks in a breath and smiles at Kyne, hoping that she goes with the flow. “Well, we’re going to have lunch together, aren’t we?” She bites her lower lip, hiding her sweaty palms behind her back.

Kyne squints. “We’re— oh!” She blinks repeatedly as she catches what’s going on. “Oh, yeah, we are. Sorry guys, I forgot. Go on without me.” She gives them a bashful look as she ushers them, and the one Kiara recognizes as Priyanka from the architect team snorts as she drags the other two women with her.

Once they’re alone, they stare at each other awkwardly, until Kyne speaks again.

“Uh, mind telling me what this is all about?” She asks, fidgeting with the ring in her index finger. Kiara bites the inside of her lip, with her hands still behind her back.

“We’re going to have lunch?” She replied, trying to sound nonchalant but failing miserably. Kyne cocks a sly brow, and Kiara groans. “Okay, fine, this is very last minute, but hear me out.” Kiara takes a few steps closer, face inches away from Kyne’s. She tries to not get distracted by the rosy undertone in Kyne’s cheeks. “I know we spend almost every day together, but when you think about it, we don’t know much about each other, and couples are supposed to know each other to every little detail. If someone finds out that this is a lie, it’ll probably be because of our lack of knowledge about each other – and lord knows I don’t want to be the laughing stock of the company.”

“Why would you be the laughing stock of the company?” Is the only thing that Kyne questions from her logic, tilting her head to the side as she furrows her brow. Perhaps it’s just Kiara’s mind, but she could swear she felt a tinge of defensiveness in her tone.

“Imagine how embarrassing it’d be if the daughter of the owner was caught faking a relationship? A lot of people already think I’m a hoe that sleeps around; I’m sure this would be deemed pathetic instead of debunking my reputation,” she explains with an eye roll. Kyne’s expression softens up, and she gives her shoulder a squeeze.

“I know this great place some streets away, if you don’t mind walking in heels,” Kyne offers, and Kiara smiles widely.

They get to really know each other beyond what co-workers do they hate and how much they dread Sandy the secretary of the front desk over pumpkin pie and sorrentinos; Kiara learns that Kyne knows how to play the flute traversière since she was a teen, knows how to sew and is fluent in Tagalog.

She offers Kiara to teach her some insults, and between laughs she replies that she’ll teach her French insults in exchange. In the back of her mind, Kiara thinks this might just work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr is @dollalpaca! comments make me very, very happy


	3. Some things, they hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me? actually updating regularly and not letting the months go by? who would've THOUGHT. not me, really. this goes to show the level of obssession i have for this ship, despite being pulled out from thin air. anyways.
> 
> thanks to emerald (fromthenorthernskies) for beta-ing this chapter! things are getting interesting 👀

Kyne would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy having lunch with Kiara; it was way too different from sharing a coffee and sweets in Kyne’s office in the middle of the day. Now they weren’t alone, and they had to lower their voices when they wanted to laugh loudly, but it was nice. She always has a good time when she’s with Kiara.

She learns that Kiara’s favorite color is purple, her favorite movie is Beetlejuice and one day she wants to have a pet chameleon so when she dresses it up, it changes its color to the one of the garment. Kyne tells her that’s something a privileged rich kid would say, but it oddly makes sense - and that if she ever does it, she expects to see a picture.

When it’s time to come back to the office, they walk through the streets with their shoulders bumping and their hands brushing ever so slightly, neither of them having the courage to grab the other’s hand. That’s until they cross a particularly busy street, and Kyne wraps her pinky around Kiara’s. To not lose her, she mumbles, not sure if she heard her. Their fingers stay intertwined even when they make the walk to Kyne’s office, closer than they should be in an empty hallway with space to spare. 

They get a few stares, and Kyne feels her free hand twitch. She tries to brush it off and focus on what Kiara is telling her instead. She’s talking about the ball, and how they will go about dress shopping on Friday.

“If you drag me to go shopping before I’ve had a shower, I’m breaking up with you,” Kyne says, coming to a stop in front of the door of her office, letting go of Kiara’s finger. Kyne could swear she saw Kiara look disappointed for a brief moment, but if it happened she doesn’t bring it up. Why would she, anyway?

Kiara laughs shortly, and dismisses it with a wave of her hand. “I’ll pick you up from your place after you get a shower, then we go shopping. That sounds okay?” She asks gently, clasping her hands behind her back. Kyne has noticed she does that a lot when she talks to her. Not that she thinks much about it, or Kiara for that matter.

“Sounds fine to me,” she agrees, smiling with satisfaction. Kiara smiles back, saying she should get back to her office, promising to text her later. Kyne furrows her brow at that, only the slightest bit concerned. “You still haven’t told me how you got my number, y’know. It’s kinda creepy,” she says before Kiara can bid her goodbye.

“If you think about it, I have everyone’s phone numbers at my disposal. Whether I decide to make use of them or not, that’s up to me.” Kiara shrugs, Kyne stares at her for a moment. She hadn’t thought about that.

“You know, sometimes I forget one day you’ll inherit this whole thing,” Kyne comments. It’s not a lie though. She has never met someone as powerful as Kiara that just decided to hang out with her employees instead of all the other powerful people. Sometimes Kyne forgets she could fire her if she got on her nerves, and treats her like she’d treat an old friend. 

It seems to work in her favour, though; her friends always ask her how she had struck a friendship with none other than Kiara, the infamous heir of the company that never cracked a smile. Kyne was always skeptical of that - whenever she hung out with her, Kiara was nothing but a giggling mess, not the stoic person her friends, and everyone else apparently, made her to be.

Perhaps she was the only person with the privilege of being able to make Kiara laugh. She wouldn’t mind that in the slightest.

Kiara just stares at her with an amused smile, and Kyne proceeds to explain herself after a moment. “You steal the cupcakes you bring me and always ask me if I have a spare charger, when you have the money to buy an entire cupcake shop and a thousand chargers if you want to,” she explains with a grin, and Kiara laughs wholeheartedly, the slightest hint of a blush appearing on her cheeks.

She’s decided her new favorite thing is making Kiara laugh, not only because it seems she’s one of the few people able to make her smile, but also because she throws her head back, scrunches up her nose and drops the invisible weight from her shoulders. It suits her a lot better.

“Stolen cupcakes are the best cupcakes,” Kiara jokes with a complicit smile. Kyne chuckles, rolling her eyes. “I gotta go for real now, but have a good rest of your day.” She smiles, waving at her, and Kyne waves back.

“Have a good day, and don’t fire anyone!” She jokingly exclaims, entering in her office.

She’s barely settling down in her chair, wondering when Kiara would text her, when Priyanka, Bo, and Scarlett enter without knocking and Kyne sinks in her chair when they all give her curious looks.

In the grand scheme of things, Kyne hadn’t considered the fact that her friends were all but trying to get her to ask Kiara out and scam her to get her money, only for Kyne to always shut them down by saying they’re just casual friends - they said it so often she swore it wasn’t a joke anymore.

They have questions, questions that Kyne isn’t prepared for answering, because she never really asked Kiara if she could tell her friends that this is fake - though she supposses she can’t, if the conversation they previously had means anything.

“Oh, there’s nothing going on between me and Kiara, you guys are just imagining things!” Scarlett mocks, mimicking her voice. Kyne groans, sinking into her chair and covering her face with her hands. “So you lied to our face this whole time? You bitch,” they complain, folding their arms.

“Normally I don’t agree with Scarlett, except now,” Boa pipes up, “Bitch,” she echoes, and Kyne swears she’ll snap her optic nerve by the strength she rolled her eyes with.

“Would you guys let me explain?” She exclaims in frustration. “There should be a category in the Olympics for jumping into conclusions, you all would excel at it,” Kyne comments, cocking a brow.

Priyanka takes a seat in the free chair on the other side of the desk, looking solemnly at her. “Firstly, you know I would. Second, go right ahead, then. Explain,” Priyanka says, cocking a brow in her direction. Kyne looks at her friends, and they all have the same stern, confused look. Shit.

She bites the inside of her cheek, thinking of something to say that’s convincing enough to appease her friends. She knows lying isn’t good, but if she already messed herself up in a lie of gigantic proportions, what would another little white lie do?

“It’s not like I’m _dating_ Kiara, per se,” she begins, “We’re just getting to know each other.” The skeptical looks don’t vanish from her friends’ faces, and Kyne fidgets with her hands under her desk before dropping the bomb. “ _And_ she’s bringing me to a charity ball on Saturday,” she muses, speaking fast enough to make her words _almost_ unintelligible. She purposely leaves out the part about meeting Kiara’s parents, because her brain might be good with numbers, but not with coming up with lies on the spot.

“Excuse me, what?” Bo says, furrowing her brow. “Did you just say she invited you to the Starzy Charity Ball?” She asks, eliciting an over the top gasp from Scarlett and Priyanka. Kyne cocks a brow, is this ball of common knowledge? Maybe they weren’t lying when they said the company could be shutting down and Kyne wouldn’t know.

“When did your hoe ass land a date with Kiara Schatzi _and_ an invitation to the Starzy Ball?” Priyanka inquires, sounding as confused as she looks. Kyne would laugh at their collective reaction if she didn’t feel the slightest bit annoyed.

“I am very charming when I want to, thank you very much,” she replies, matter-of-factly, with a shit-eating grin. 

Scarlett perches themself against the desk, folding their arms with a childish pout. “So you’re telling us you’ll be at a ball full of rich people, and you _still_ won’t consider my magnificent plan of scamming some of them, running away and not work a day of our lives again?” They dramatize, bringing a hand to their chest.

Kyne snorts, quickly laughing along with her friends. Of course Scarlett takes every opportunity they get to talk about their “millionaire plan” as if it was that easy. At this point, Kyne just brushes it off as an in-joke.

They stay at her office a little longer than they should, trying to get all the details out of Kyne, but she keeps her answers short and concise, not giving much away - though there’s not much to say, really, and she’s not particularly good at lying, especially to her friends. Especially to Priyanka. Kyne swears she can smell the bullshit even before it comes out.

She’s surprised when Priyanka seems to believe her; out of the three of them, Kyne suspected she would be the one to pick up on the plot holes in her story. But she has yet to look suspicious, so she tries not to worry about it.

They finally leave her office when they notice the time and that they should be back to work, but they make it very clear that they want every detail possible about the ball, and that she’s not going to escape their query once Sunday arrives.

“How do y’all know I’m not going to be with Kiara on Sunday too?” Kyne challenges playfully, earning a screech from her friends. She has no idea where that came from, and almost right away she regrets it.

“Damn, you had lunch once and you already wanna climb on her?” Scarlett teases, making Kyne blush on the spot. She tries to stammer out an answer, but before she can they’re biding her goodbye and leaving the office.

The door is shut closed again, and Kyne groans, rubbing her eyelids. Well, that didn’t go as bad as planned, but it certainly didn’t go as smoothly as she would’ve wanted. She hopes and prays that the last line doesn’t find it’s way to Kiara’s knowledge.

Speaking of which, she hears the text alert go off in her phone, and when she goes to check, she bites back a smile when she reads it and sees it’s from Kiara.

***

Friday comes before Kyne can even notice it, and when she arrives at work that day, she feels her hands twitch every so often at the thought of going shopping with Kiara once work is over. They had exchanged a few texts here and there over the past two days, agreeing on an hour and talking about their boundaries when it came to money - though that was more Kyne's doing than Kiara’s.

It's one thing to let Kiara buy her a coffee or a cupcake; it's not that big of a deal, and something she can repay easily. But letting Kiara buy her a dress that costs about the same as her rent is a completely different thing, and she made sure to voice her concern to her to avoid any misunderstanding. Kiara had understood, but she said that, in the slight case a dress caught Kyne's eye and it happened to be expensive, it wouldn't bother her to buy it.

 _If anything, it's the least I can do to thank you, honey_ , she had texted her, and the pet name had left Kyne speechless for a couple moments. She had no idea how to answer it, so she just left it at that. Though she thinks about it more than she should.

She's chewing on a pen, reading a report they had sent her with a request to calculate the budget for a new hotel the company was building in partnership with some other rich people. Exciting stuff to do on a Friday morning, basically. There's a knock on the door, and she tells whoever it is to come in. She doesn't even need to look up to know it's Kiara.

A cupcake is settled in front of her, and she smiles when she looks up and finds Kiara staring right back at her. 

“Good morning,” she says, sitting in front of her and taking a sip from a Starbucks foam cup. Kyne bids her good morning too, and takes a bite from her cupcake. “Ready for today?” Kiara asks, with a playful gleam in her eyes. Kyne bites the inside of her cheek, fidgeting with her hands.

“I have a feeling that I should be worried,” she comments, chuckling nervously. Kiara laughs shortly, dismissing her with a wave of her hand.

“Don't be, this will be fun! I'm positive about that, it won't be that different from going shopping with a friend or by yourself,” Kiara assures her, but Kyne isn't sure if she should mention that she mostly shops at thrift stores and modifies the clothes she buys by herself, while Kiara probably spends hundreds in one item of clothing.

She keeps her mouth shut, and smiles gently at her instead. "I'll take your word for it, then." Kiara sets the foam cup on the desk, and claps excitedly.

“So, I think we haven't talked about tomorrow, and how we'll get ready together, or if we will get ready together for that matter--”

“Wait, what?” Kyne interrupts her, furrowing her brow. Kiara tells her that she had thought about bringing her to her apartment to do their hair and make-up together before the ball. Kyne plasters a smile on her face, but on the inside, there's a ball of nerves forming in her throat that keeps her from speaking.

It starts to dawn on her that, tomorrow, she'll know yet another face of Kiara at the ball, and she'll have to act accordingly to it. She'll have to hang from her arm like arm candy, talk to people that could buy her entire apartment complex without batting an eye, and actually _meet_ Kiara's parents, whom she had only seen briefly in the hallways and never dared to look in the eye. 

Maybe this was a hell of a bad idea disguised at just being not _that_ bad.

She remains silent for a minute too long, and Kiara senses that something is off; she leans forward, looking at her with a tinge of worriedness, and asks her what's wrong. _Everything_ , Kyne wants to answer, but she doesn't find the courage to vocalize her thoughts — besides, she knows it’s too late to back down, and she doesn’t want to let Kiara down.

So she swallows her fears, clears her throat and tries to lie as best as she can.

“I’m kinda intimidated at the thought of meeting your parents,” she says, which isn’t technically a lie, but it isn’t all of the truth either. Kiara’s expression softens up, and she goes out her way to assure her that meeting her parents won’t be as bad as she thinks, that they’re actually great people. But the only thing that flashes through Kyne’s mind is how fast she will be fired once they fake their break up and her boss is mad at her for breaking his daughter’s heart.

Kiara is talking, she sees her lips moving, but the words don’t reach her ears. Kyne takes a deep breath, and tries to concentrate on what she’s saying.

“Besides, you’re already pretty, it shouldn’t take you too long to get your makeup done, right?” She says, giving her a sly wink. Kyne blinks repeatedly before blushing — well, that’s what she gets for zoning out.

Kyne tries to shut down all the negative thoughts, and gives Kiara a genuine smile. Or as genuine as she can.

“I can try to paint fast, I guess,” she offers, biting the inside of her cheek, hoping Kiara hadn’t noticed she wasn’t paying her attention.

Kiara smiles, the conversation goes on and Kyne tries her best to not let her anxiety eat her up, which is easier said than done.

***

It turns out that going shopping with Kiara _is_ fun, despite the initial awkwardness when she had picked Kyne up and neither knew what to say to break the ice. It oddly felt like a blind date, in which you have no idea how your date even looks like, but that wasn’t exactly their case. So after some moments of uncomfortable silence, Kyne had asked Kiara if she had started How To Get Away With Murder like she promised she would do, and the conversation just flowed naturally.

Kiara takes her to the fancy side of the mall, with stores with prices so expensive Kyne and her friends could never afford, so they took pictures of the garments on display and then commissioned Kyne to recreate them for much cheaper. She drags her through three different stores in the span of an hour, searching all over for something that Kyne likes and agrees on the price of - the later was harder than they had imagined. Kyne doesn’t need her degree in math to know that their concept of cheap isn’t the same.

Their hunt in store number three isn’t successful, even though Kiara insisted she tried on a red mermaid gown on sale that would look beautiful on her - which it did, but it was too tight for Kyne’s liking, and it didn’t come in any other size.

“You know, you could buy me some nice fabric and I could wipe out a whole dress overnight. I did that for my high school prom,” Kyne comments as they’re leaving the store, and Kiara cocks a brow, amused.

“Wait, for real? I didn’t know you could sew,” she says, signaling Kyne to keep walking forward. Their hands brush again, just like on Wednesday after lunch, and Kyne wants to reach for Kiara’s hand and squeeze it tight so she doesn’t lose her in the crowd. But she desists from it.

“Yeah, my Lola taught me new things every time I visited over the summer when I was a kid. She says I came out just like her, because my mom can’t even thread a needle,” she tells her with a giggle, remembering all the summers she spent sitting next to her Lola, watching her sew beautiful garments, rummaging through her sewing room and imagining she was an important designer. 

Kiara snorts, grinning from ear to ear. “Now I kinda want to see what you could come up with if I bought you fancy fabrics,” she tentatively says, hiding her hands in the pockets of her jacket. Kyne wraps her arm around her bicep, pulling out her phone and scrolling through her gallery for a particular photo.

“If I pulled this in one night out from some fabrics I had in my house, I’m pretty sure I can come up with something for tomorrow.” She shows her a photo of her when she was eighteen, after she finished doing her makeup and was getting ready to go to prom with her friends - looking back, there are a ton of things wrong, except the golden floor length dress hugging her frame.

“You look so tiny,” is the first thing Kiara says, and Kyne pinches her arm out of reflex, sarcastically thanking her for the compliment on her dress. “Your dress is stunning, but I guess you already know that.” She gives her a playful smile, suddenly coming to a stop. “You know what? I have a new idea.”

“Oh god, not another one,” Kyne dramatizes, and Kiara pinches her back.

“This one is actually good!” She protests, and Kyne tells her to go ahead. “I need to know if you can sew another dress overnight, though.” Kiara’s tone grows high pitched, and Kyne puts two and two together rather easily, though she’s a bit confused.

“Either you wanna take me up on the fabric offer, or you want _me_ to make _you_ a gown for tomorrow,” Kyne says tentatively, cocking a brow. Doesn’t Kiara already have a dress? And why would she want Kyne to make her one, when she can perfectly buy some fancy dress for herself?

Kiara insists on her question, asking her to just answer with a yes or no, and Kyne says it depends on the design; it’s not something she can do if the design is something massive and opulent, like she probably wants.

She pulls out her phone with a big smile, quickly opening _Pinterest_ and showing Kyne one of her boards. “My mom actually wanted me to get something very extra, but I said ‘mom, I’m an adult now, I can wear whatever I want!’. But in the end, I forgot to buy a dress altogether,” Kiara confesses sheepishly, but Kyne is too concentrated on the board. 

She sees a lot of vibrant colors that would go well in Kiara, and she tries to imagine how long it would take her to create any of those rather intricate designs. _Surely more than one day and a half,_ she thinks - then, one design in particular catches her eye; it’s a floor length dress with a small cut on the left leg, the top half being off the shoulder. It’s fancy enough, easy to make, and it would look great on Kiara.

“I have a royal blue fabric that would go really well with this design,” Kyne comments absent-mindedly, looking back and forth between the photo and Kiara. “It’s expensive fabric though, so I expect nothing short of a royal dress in exchange,” she jokingly says, but Kiara takes it to heart.

“Let's go then, your majesty, we have some shopping to do.” She tugs at her arm to keep walking, with a playful smile on her face. Kyne tries to ignore the fact their arms are still linked, and that Kiara strokes the back of her arm with her thumb ever so slightly.

It takes her two more stores to find a dress that Kyne actually likes and has no complaints about; it’s a deep shade of green, floor length, with a deep cleavage and some delicate embroidery details all over it. Kyne _almost_ rejects it despite absolutely adoring it, all because of the price - Kiara just swipes her credit card before Kyne changes her mind.

The bag feels heavy in her hands, and there’s a tinge of worry in the back of her mind. What if she wastes her and Kiara’s time, and she ends up not liking the dress she makes? She’d be absolutely mortified, not only because she already cost her five hundred dollars, but because she’d hate to let Kiara down.

Her train of thought is interrupted by Kiara asking her if she wants to have ice cream before they leave. Kyne accepts, smiling gently, trying to push her worries to the back of her mind.

***

Admittedly, it's been a long time since Kyne brought anyone outside her friend circle and family to her apartment. It's not _as_ messy as it is most days, and she'd like to think it's cozy enough, with all the pictures scattered around and the potted plants on the windows to make up for the small space. Kiara says something about not knowing she had a green thumb, while she takes off her shoes and leaves them at the entrance, despite Kyne's insistence that it's not really necessary if she doesn't want to.

Having her around feels weird, especially because just a week before all they knew about each other was compressed to the type of coffee they liked and how much they hated corporative meetings. She eases up once Kiara leaves her jacket on the coat rack, loosens up the buttons of her shirt and her hair, flopping onto the couch and asking with a child-like excitement when will they start.

“I need to take your measurements first,” she says, rummaging through her drawers for her measuring tape. Kiara practically jumps off the couch, bouncing with excitement.

“I can't wait to get a custom made dress from Miss Kyne Aguilar herself,” she teases lightheartedly, and Kyne coos.

“Don't get your hopes up,” she deadpans, getting a giggle in response.

Kyne tries to ignore the annoying way her heart beats so fast when Kiara laughs, and she makes her stand very still while she takes her measurements, but she feels Kiara’s eyes following her throughout the whole process. She swallows thickly when she brings the measuring tape up to her hips, writing down her measurements faster than she ever did, trying to ignore the heat creeping up at the back of her neck - though it’s almost impossible to ignore when she places the tape over Kiara’s chest, and now she’s sure her stare is glued on her.

“This should be quick,” Kyne muses, once she’s finished with the measurements, breathing out a sigh of relief when she walks to her cabinet full of her sewing equipment, pulling out basic molds for the top part. 

“You know, if you actually can do this, I’m going to be really impressed,” Kiara says, settling on Kyne’s couch again and tucking her legs under her body. Kyne cocks a brow at her, setting up her things at the coffee table.

“I take payment in cash, not surprise,” she deadpans, eliciting a faux offended yelp from Kiara. She giggles after a moment, spreading out the fabric and fetching for chalk in her pencil case to trace the initial patterns. “It shouldn’t be that hard, y’know? Your design is very standard, I thought you’d want something more, I don’t know, fancy.” She steals a glance at Kiara, who cocks a brow and shifts on the couch, dismissing it with a wave of her hand.

“I’m not a big fan of those big, opulent dresses, honestly. I prefer comfort above everything - ‘sides, I'm pretty sure I'd look like a clown,” Kiara comments, watching with interest as Kyne fumbles with the fabric, making sure it's perfectly symmetrical.

Kyne pauses to meet Kiara's gaze. “I mean, have you seen yourself? You wouldn't look bad even if you wore a sack of potatoes,” she says earnestly, and she's not sure where did the courage to say that came from, but the smile that breaks in Kiara's face makes Kyne's stomach twist again.

“Coming from the woman that can pull off every color under the sun, that's a very high compliment,” Kiara compliments back, causing Kyne to blush slightly and dismiss her with a wave of her hand. 

The next hours pass in a blur of cutting and sewing fabric, making sure she wasn't pinching Kiara with the pins, and Kyne's heart beating so fast it may come out of her ribcage whenever Kiara's laugh echoes through the apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> catch me on tumblr as @dollalpaca!! comments are appreciated, as i thrive off praise hehe


	4. Feel my heart's intention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO I AM ALIVE AND WELL. This chapter was such a bitch to write, I swear I have more deleted scenes that actual scenes. A million thanks to Emerald for putting up with be while writing this and beta-ing, and to Ella for correcting the Tagalog bit. I love you both very much. Also, tonight is the drcan finale, and as you may know, I am not mentally prepared for that, so have 4.9K of soft, stupid lesbians. As always, comments are very appreciated!

“Kyne, if you pinch me again, I swear to god—” Kiara’s threat is interrupted by a yelp, and a giggle from Kyne’s end as she secures the pin on the fabric.

“If only you would stay still, I wouldn’t pinch you while trying to make some adjustments,” Kyne says simply, standing up and briefly inspecting the waist area. “Does that feel tight enough?” She asks, walking around Kiara, who just nods, absent-mindedly running her hands around her torso.

She’s not sure what time it is, only knows that the night has arrived hours ago and there’s been a soft rain falling for half of that time. It’s hard to notice the passing of time when she’s with Kyne, talking and laughing and being closer than she ever imagined, when she puts her hands firmly on her body to make arrangements or to keep her still - it’s hard to notice reality altogether.

Kiara goes to the bathroom to take off the dress, and as she’s slipping back into her own clothes, she hears how the rain starts pouring harder and harder. She sees a streak of light in the sky from the tiny window, followed by thunder. She jumps slightly, mumbling a curse as she leaves the bathroom and re-joins Kyne in the living room, who’s quickly closing the windows.

“And the weatherman said we’d have a week without rain,” Kiara says, leaving the dress on the couch. “What time is it, anyway?” She asks, looking around for her phone.

“Like 2 a.m.,” Kyne quickly replies, taking the dress and placing it over the coffee table, flopping onto the couch right away. “How did it get so late? Jesus. I didn’t even notice.” She rubs her face with the back of her palms, stifling a yawn. “You wanna eat something? I have leftover lasagna from yesterday, or I have enough cheese to make pizza if you want—”

“I think I should leave before it gets worse,” she interrupts Kyne, fetching her jacket from the rack. She turns to see her, finding her with a frown on her face as she fidgets with her hands.

“Y’know, it really _is_ late, the storm _is_ getting pretty bad by the second, _but_ you live half across the city. I really wouldn’t mind if you stayed the night, y’know.”

Kiara blinks repeatedly, before she realizes what Kyne just said. She feels her face heat up, and it takes her a moment to manage a sentence without stuttering. The offer had taken her completely by surprise.

“I don’t wanna bother you, it’s fine,” she says, dismissing it with a wave of her hand. 

“You’re not a bother,” Kyne is quick to reply, shifting on the couch and staring at Kiara with a gentle smile. “I mean it, you can stay here.” 

There’s silence for a moment, in which Kiara thinks of a hundred and one excuses to give Kyne to not stay the night. She’s no stranger to running away after a hookup, but this is different in all ways possible, and the way Kyne’s looking at her, silently hoping she’ll accept with that small smile on her face - it’s hard to say no.

Kiara sighs, rubbing her temples as she hangs up her jacket on the rack again and tells Kyne she’ll take the couch. Kyne gives her a toothy smile, saying she would never let her sleep in her room, anyway - she wants to have some dignity left after this, thank you very much.

“My parents would probably scold me and tell me to give you my room, but it’s a hot mess in every way possible,” she tells her over their dinner: heated lasagna and coca cola. “‘Sides, I have a very complex system for finding things, and I would prefer to keep it a secret.” Kiara cocks an amused brow, sipping on her drink.

“I didn’t have you as the type to be messy,” she comments, resting her chin on her palm. Kyne rolls her eyes slightly, stuffing her mouth with the last bit of the lasagna.

“There are many things you don’t know about me.” She winks at her cheekily, proceeding to leave the dishes in the sink, telling Kiara to just leave it like that, she’ll clean up tomorrow. Right now, all she wants to do is get a good night of sleep. But her words are running through Kiara’s mind: she’s not exactly wrong - there are a lot of things she doesn’t know about Kyne, and there are a lot of things she’s discovered in such a short time. She’s curious about what else there’s to unravel regarding Kyne’s personality and life, and she’s never been particularly patient, but for her, she guesses she can make an exception.

Kyne brings her pillows and a blanket, trying to make the couch as comfortable as she can, and she assures her that everything is good, until they realize something. Kiara’s clothes aren’t precisely comfortable to sleep in.

They stare for a moment, before Kyne sighs, mumbling something Kiara can’t quite catch and leaves for a moment, only to come back with a pair of sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, saying she can wear them if she wants. Kiara bites back a smile when she notices the rosy tone of her cheeks as she hands her the clothes.

“I’m gonna go sleep now, you can change in the bathroom, or here, I don’t know, that’s up to you, and, uh, if you need a charger I have a spare one in this drawer,” she rambles a little, pointing at the drawer. Kiara just thanks her with a polite smile, amused at the rare sight of a flustered Kyne. “Good night, Kiki.” 

Kiara’s a little thrown off when she hears the nickname come out of Kyne’s lips for the first time, but smiles nonetheless, “Good night, Kyne.” They smile at each other for a moment before Kyne leaves to her room, and Kiara is left standing alone in the living room.

She takes a deep breath and gets changed, immediately being hit with the smell of vanilla emanating from the clothes. She smiles a little, breathing in the scent as she lies on the couch.

The sleeping part doesn’t come easy, mostly, she supposes, because she’s at Kyne’s place, on her couch, and all the photos of Kyne hanging from the walls that are looking down on her, somehow reminding her that this wasn’t part of the plan and it will only make things more awkward once it’s time to call their scheme off. So she does the only logical thing she can think of: texting Rita and Tynomi. 

They have a group chat that’s mostly for talking shit about other co-workers, sending files and, in Tynomi’s case, to use it as a replacement for the notes app. Neither of the three uses it much outside work hours, but now, it really comes in-handy.

_So, you guys won’t believe this,_ she prefaces, hitting send way too quickly; she doesn’t think either of them are up, anyway.

That’s where she’s wrong.

Tynomi answers after some moments, while Kiara is still typing, and Rita follows suit. Kiara deletes what she had just typed to ask them what they are doing up at these hours.

``

Kiara snorts, re-typing her whole message with odd excitement.

``

``

Rita and Tynomi answer almost immediately to Kiara’s surprise, apparently she’s caught their attention. She takes a deep breath before replying; she knows they’ll freak out and take things out of context before she has an option of explaining, it’s their thing. Especially considering they’ve taken every opportunity they have to pester her about Kyne.

``

She bites back a giggle as she hits send on a meme, completely flustered at the conversation going on - Tynomi’s “you don’t usually stay the night” hits too close home, but, she reminds herself, _this is different_. She’ll probably forget this happened in a couple months, once they’ve broken up and this turns into a funny story they can confide to their friends.

Kiara talks to them until she’s running out of battery, and has to inevitably go to sleep, not without fetching Kyne’s charger and setting it aside.

Rita and Tynomi’s words linger on her mind before she finally falls asleep, and Kiara wonders for a split second what it’d be like if she were actually dating Kyne. She supposess not much would change, not really.

***

Kiara isn’t woken up by the sun, the birds chirping, or any of that - rather, it’s the noise coming from the kitchen that makes her reluctantly wake up. For a moment she forgets where she is, until she hears Kyne’s voice and remembers she had been persuaded to stay the night. She rubs her eyelids, trying to shake off the sleepiness, and unwillingly gets up to meet Kyne at the kitchen.

It’s tiny, and she easily finds her perched against the counter, wearing a worn out tank top and shorts, glancing at the coffee machine with annoyance, muttering things under her breath as she fidgets with her hair. Kiara can't believe she has the audacity to look good just woken up.

“Hey, mornin’,” she greets, and Kyne jumps a little, before lazily smiling at her, rubbing her eyelids.

“Gandang umaga,” she says, dragging the last A. “If you want coffee, may tasas diyan sa cabinet, though you should take a seat, this coffee machine is shit, kainis eh, tagal bago makagawa ng kape,” Kyne mutters with a growl, not realizing the inquisitive look Kiara is giving her.

They stare at each other for a moment, Kiara cocks an amused brow, perching herself against the doorframe, before Kyne realizes she clearly doesn't know Tagalog.

“Sorry, I do that a lot, mixing Tagalog and English I mean. I can't properly function without my morning coffee,” she explains, stifling a yawn. She stands on her tiptoes to reach a cupboard, and Kiara quickly approaches her from behind, fetching two mugs with ease, setting it on the counter. Kyne turns to see her with a slight frown. “I could reach for it without help,” Kyne says, with an annoyed tone that just causes Kiara to giggle. She mumbles something else under her breath that Kiara can’t quite catch, both because the noise coffee machine makes and because she can’t understand Tagalog.

“Whatever you say.” She puts her palms up in surrender and watches as Kyne pours the coffee in the mugs, telling her to grab them and set them on the table while she makes toasts. 

They move with ease around the kitchen, despite the lack of space making them bump into the other more than once, mostly because they’re sleep deprived, but Kiara can clearly see how Kyne evades her gaze, how she keeps herself busy to not have to make small talk. Kiara tries not to think much about it, maybe having her there threw her off a little from her morning routine - either way, it’s too early to overthink.

Well, she’s not exactly sure what time it is, but it’s not like it matters, anyway; not when she’s with Kyne.

They make breakfast together, anticipating the other’s movements with ease and silently enjoying each other’s company. It’s homey, and peaceful, and surely it’ll be the last moment of peace they have together before all hell breaks loose at 8 p.m., once they arrive to the Starzy Ball and Kiara has to put up her cutthroat business woman facade while Kyne clings from her arm, until they inevitably have to meet Kiara’s parents - she’s been, simultaneously, dreading this day and anticipating it with excitement bubbling up in her stomach.

Maybe it’s just the spending time with Kyne part that she doesn’t mind at all, the part where they gossip and snicker about the rest of the people at the ball while they eat various fancy snacks - the part where fancy balls are tolerable for once, not because they’re more bearable, but because she has Kyne to make them better.

Once they’re done with breakfast, having cleaned the mugs and last night’s dirty dishes while they listened to one of Kiara’s random playlists, Kyne asks her if she wants to join her in with her skincare routine, though really, it’s just a facemask she bought per one of her friends’ recommendation and she has used ever since. Kiara accepts happily, but in hindsight, she probably shouldn’t have; Kyne delicately but firmly takes her face in one of her hands, and with the other, she applies the creamy mask with an old brush.

They’re sitting in Kyne’s living room, and their faces aren’t even that close, but Kiara feels as if there’s not enough air in the room, as her heart plummets against her ears and all she can do is try to keep her cool as Kyne gently traces the pattern of her face.

Yet Kiara can’t quite put two and two together, though.

She leaves Kyne’s apartment two hours after, with a dress that fits her like a glove and a weird feeling that’s settled in her chest. Kyne tried to persuade her to stay for lunch, since it was almost time for it anyway, but she’s spent too much time at her place already, and she doesn’t want to bother her anymore.

Despite Kyne saying that she likes her company, Kiara can’t help but feel weirdly uneased, especially when she spots Kyne stealing glances at her out of the corner of her eye, with an indecipherable look. 

She can only hope things go smoothly tonight.

***

The hours pass too slowly for Kiara’s liking, and she finds herself wandering around her own apartment, bored out of her mind, more than once throughout the afternoon. 

She eats lunch alone, ordering takeout from a nearby restaurant and planting herself in front of her TV, flickering through Netflix’s catalogue, searching for something that can set her mind off Kyne, but most movies bore her even more if that’s possible, and the shows she usually re watches with a smile on her face aren’t cutting it either.

She texts Rita and Tynomi throughout the day, not mentioning at all what she’s feeling, because the last thing she needs now is those two on her case. Instead, she just fills them in on what happened in the last hours.

Tynomi says it wouldn’t surprise her if they end up dating for real, Rita agrees, and Kiara only sends them eye rolling emojis. 

Kiara is many things, but she’s not delusional enough to believe they’ll end up in a real relationship - she thought that once, way before Kyne appeared in her life, and things didn’t end up well. It doesn’t matter how well it looks like they get along, Kiara won’t take that risk again.

She rubs her eyelids, deciding that taking a shower and a nap wouldn’t hurt.

***

Before Kiara can even stop to realize what’s happening, to overthink everything one last time, she’s holding the door open for Kyne as she slides in the passenger seat, ready to head to the ball and meet her parents. Admittedly, focusing just on the road is simply too difficult for Kiara, who can’t help but to steal glances at Kyne every other second. 

She looks mesmerizing, even more than normal - her suits of every color of the rainbow, high ponytail and sharp eyeliner she always wears to the office are something Kiara’s become used to, but that doesn’t mean she’s any less radiant. Though this isn’t the first time she sees her wearing this dress, it sure is the first time she sees Kyne in a full face of makeup, with her hair down in soft waves and killer heels.

She’s stunning, and just looking at her knocks the air out of Kiara’s lungs. Kiara hopes and prays that helps for acting like a couple in love.

They make small talk while Kiara drives, soothing each other’s nerves with encouraging words disguised as playful banter, and though Kiara was scared for a second to give Kyne the aux cord, she forgets about it as soon as Donna Summer starts playing.

Kyne loudly sings the lyrics to Bad Girls, making Kiara laugh as loud as her, and it makes the drive go by in the blink of an eye - almost as if on cue, once the playlist ends, Kiara pulls up one block away from where the venue is, saying unprompted that’s because she knows it must be packed and it’d be a nightmare to get out of by the end of the night. 

Her hands tremble as she turns off the engine, her nerves and self doubt suddenly kicking in. Would she be able to pull this off without making it too obvious it was false, thus embarrassing both of them? She feels Kyne give her shoulder a squeeze, interrupting her train of thought, looking at her with a feeling she can’t quite put a finger on.

“Listen, I’m as scared as you are, but I’m never going to have any other occasion to wear this dress, so.” She shrugs, leaving the sentence in the air, smiling slightly. “We better get walking, ‘cause I was promised food, and I’m getting hungry,” she jokes to lighten up the mood, and Kiara smiles back.

They walk in silence, and at some point Kyne intertwines their hands, giving Kiara’s hand a little squeeze. It’s a little gesture, but it makes her breath hitch in her throat, her heart beating faster and faster with every step they take.

Once they’re in the queue to enter, Kiara pulls out her phone from the pockets in her dress to shoot her parents a message, telling them that they’re waiting outside. She feels Kyne tug at her arm while her stare is glued to her phone, so she hums noncommittally.

“I thought this would be more… Fancy, y’know. I feel as if I’m on my senior prom all over again,” she mutters, close to her ear so she’s the only one that hears. Kiara involuntarily snorts, putting her phone away and turning to see Kyne, who’s shamelessly looking around the queue, judging everyone’s clothes.

“Not everyone can have great taste like you,” she playfully replies, earning a chuckle and an eye roll from her. 

Once they reach the front, Kiara pulls out their invitation envelopes and they’re quickly let in, and she can’t help but to smile when Kyne looks around the venue, taking everything in and squeezing her hand. She squeezes right back as she guides them through the sea of people, stopping every so often to greet people that she knows because of her parents. 

When Kiara finally spots her mother among the crowd, her stomach flips, stopping in her tracks to look back at Kyne, who looks as anxious as her, practically wanting to go anywhere but near Kiara’s parents - she can’t blame her, really; at the end of the day, they’re still her bosses.

“It’ll be alright,” Kiara manages to say, trying to convince herself more than anything. “They’re nice people, they’ll like you, like I do,” she assures her. Kyne cocks a brow, a cheeky smile blooming in her face as Kiara’s cheeks heat up when she realizes what she just said. “No, I mean— you know what I meant.”

Kyne giggles, swinging their hands. “Yeah, I know,” she replies simply, “Let’s go, I’m eager to get fired.” Her faux sweet delivery makes Kiara laugh, easing the nerves as they walk up to her parents. 

Her mother spots them before her dad, quickly making her way towards them with a huge smile on her face, stare fixated on Kyne and their intertwined hands. Sweat prickles the back on Kiara’s head, but it’s too late to back down or run away, so she just gulps and allows her to hug her tight before wrapping Kyne in another hug.

“Hi, darling! Kyne, right? I’m Rebecca, and it’s great to finally meet you!” She chirps excitedly, the smile never leaving her face. Kyne briefly glances at Kiara before returning the smile and the pleasantries. “Honey, let’s go find your dad, shall we? I know he’s dying to meet you too.” She motions at them to follow her and they follow suit, their hands finding each other again.

Though Kyne didn’t exactly know Kiara’s mom before, she sure as hell has seen Kiara’s dad around the company, but never _actually_ met him. Once they find him, the squeeze she gives her almost makes Kiara yelp, but she reminds herself that she dragged them here, so really, she can’t complain.

“Papa, this is my girlfriend, Kyne,” Kiara says, her stomach flips again when she addresses Kyne as her girlfriend for the first time. She knows it’s fake, but she can’t help the fuzzy feeling that spreads in her chest.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” Kyne greets with a smile, awkwardly sticking her hand out to shake. Kiara’s dad smiles gently, accepting the handshake.

“It’s good to meet you too, my daughter has told me lots of great things about you,” he says, and Kyne immediately turns to look at Kiara with a sneaky smile, probably wondering what she’s said about her.

It doesn’t take long before they’re asking Kyne about her job at the company, about herself, her family; Rebecca does most of the questioning, eager to know more about her supposed new daughter-in-law, while her husband just nods, talking every so often. 

So far, things are going well, and it seems like they’ll be able to pull this off successfully - they have the right amount of chemistry, and Kiara finds it easy to naturally place an arm around Kyne’s waist at some point during the night. Though Kyne jumps at the contact, she quickly relaxes into it, and Kiara figures that’s just her going along with it to not seem suspicious.

The only part that’s proving difficult is not getting bored out of her mind while talking to the other guests, most of which her parents know one way or another, and thus she’s forced to interact with them. Some look at her hand wrapped around Kyne’s waist with an eyebrow cocked, curiosity in their gaze as they bite their tongue to avoid asking a stupid question.

Some _do_ ask questions, wonder if she’s Kiara’s girlfriend with faux politeness she’s all too familiar with, inquiring afterwards how they met. The looks on their faces always change when Kyne replies that she works for her company before Kiara can say anything, a fake smile plastered on her face as she watches how they probably wonder if she’s a golddigger.

“At least one of us is having fun,” Kiara says ironically, while they’re getting snacks from one of the tables near the walls. Kyne hums, her mouth full of appetizers.

“I mean, if you think about it, I’m never going to see these people again, so what’s the matter?” She shrugs, reaching for more appetizers. Though it’s technically true, that statement makes Kiara feel weirdly uneasy, but she pushes those feelings away.

Truth be told, the only reason the night is bearable is because Kyne runs her mouth a lot more than Kiara thought, with her deadpan humor that no one but Kiara seems to understand. She only gets chattier and chattier as she drowns glass after glass of champagne, saying she’s drinking in Kiara’s name since she can’t drink tonight.

At some point, Kiara’s arm finds her way around Kyne’s waist again, when she comments that she’s starting to feel a little lightheaded. It was almost instant, and this time around, Kyne didn’t even flinch at the contact. Kiara, again, thought nothing of it.

Aside from meeting Anastarzia and her kooky, weird secretary that wore a suit with mismatched colors - Jimbo, if they heard correctly - nothing really exciting happened. Sure, the food and the drinks were nice, and Kyne was having the time of her life sending photos after photos to her friends’ group chat with a shit-eating grin. She takes a lot of dorky selfies with unflattering angles, usually pulling Kiara into the frame, and it takes a lot of her willpower to not laugh loudly at Kyne’s faces.

More than a couple hours have probably passed, though they’re nowhere near the end of the event, when Kiara feels Kyne tug at her arm while they’re pretending to be interested in a conversation they were dragged into.

“I don’t know how to tell you this nicely,” Kyne begins, settling her chin on Kiara’s shoulder, speaking softly enough so only she can hear. “But I’m bored out of my mind,” her faux sweet delivery, along with the flutter of her eyelashes, makes Kiara chuckle. 

“Well, what do you want me to do?” She asks softly, as Kyne looks up at her with a blank expression.

“Let’s go to McDonalds, I’m hungry,” she suggests, her expression lightning up almost immediately. Kiara laughs wholeheartedly this time - she spent the whole night devouring those appetizers! Almost as if she can read her mind, she continues, “Listen, it’s not my fault those appetizers can’t satisfy me. Rich people's food is lame, and I know you’re hungry too,” Kyne states, matter-of-factly.

Well, she can’t really argue with that - she _does_ feel a little hungry, despite all the snacks she ate. And, if she’s being honest, she appreciates the excuse to leave, so she finds her parents to quickly bid them goodbye, saying Kyne has a headache and wants to leave. Her mother makes Kiara promise she’ll bring Kyne to the family dinners soon, and he echoes the sentiment. She forces a smile and falsely promises she will, turning around as Kyne tells them again it was really nice to meet them.

“I think they liked me,” she comments, latching onto Kiara’s arm to not stumble with her own feet. “Who would’ve thought Antoine Schatzi would even know my name!” She giggles, resting her head against Kiara’s shoulder again. And Kiara knows she’s more than tipsy, that this is all pretend, but the warm feeling that spreads through her chest at the contact is everything but fake.

***

Though it’s fairly late, there’s still people inside the nearest McDonald's Kiara could find on Google Maps, so they resolve to just order through the drive through - even if she had no problem eating in a fancy gown and a full-face of makeup, the decision was more due to Kyne’s inability to walk straight. Crowded places weren’t exactly good if she wanted to keep Kyne from falling flat on her face.

Even though Kyne was the one that suggested they go to McDonald’s, her brain short-circuited for a moment while ordering, asking a tad too loud if she could have one of those paper crowns with her order, before remembering that’s a Burger King thing. Kiara just ordered a cheeseburger and a Big Mac through hiccups of laughter and dead silence on the employee’s end.

“Did you really drink that much?” Kiara inquires as they’re waiting for their order. Kyne rolls her eyes, pinching her on the arm.

“That’s none of your business,” she replies, childishly sticking her tongue out as Kiara looks at her in amusement.

Just a week ago she would’ve never imagined she’d get to see this side of Kyne, satisfied with their short encounters during office hours and polite enough friendship, but now, she wants this Kyne as a friend too - the messy drinker, quick-witted, caring Kyne that makes her laugh with every other word she says.

They’re sitting on the hood of Kiara’s car, eating their hamburgers and stealing each other’s fries as they talk about anything and everything - mostly about Kyne’s impressions of everyone she had met at the ball, not holding back on her opinions now that they were alone.

As she’s mimicking the voice of one of the women they met, Kiara notices a stain of what looks like mayonnaise in the corner of Kyne’s mouth, so she takes a napkin and brings her hand to her face to clean it up, making Kyne stop in the middle of a sentence. Kiara instructs her to be still and she complies, her gaze never leaving Kiara, even when she withdraws her hand, tossing the napkin into the food bag.

There’s a moment of silence, though not an uncomfortable one, before Kyne speaks again.

“Y’know, if I forget to tell you when you drop me home, I really like spending time with you. I enjoyed being your fake girlfriend,” she says earnestly, and the softness of her voice and tone makes Kiara’s heart race.

“I really liked having you as my fake girlfriend,” she echoes, though she doesn’t actually mean it - not because she didn’t enjoy the night, or because she regrets asking this to Kyne, not at all. She doesn’t regret anything.

It’s just that, as she stares at Kyne, listening to her chaotic train of thought while she tries to steal her fries, it hits her that she _likes_ her. Actually likes her. Has probably liked her since the moment they met, when she made her giggle within minutes of meeting each other, when she let her hide in her office without much of an explanation, when she listened to her problems and offered solutions in her own Kyne way - she’s not sure when it started, but now that she knows it, the whole fake dating arrangement doesn't sit well with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr is @dollalpaca ! :D


	5. Some people I can't hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JESUS. This took as long as the previous chapter and it isn’t nearly as long as the last. Sorry, guys. But hey, I literally wrote this in under 24 hours! A personal record, if I do say so myself. We do get some s p i c y drama, too 👀 things can only go up from here. A million thanks to Emerald (@fromthenorthernskies) for beta-ing this chapter 💗 Hope you enjoy!
> 
> PSA- the author does not take responsability for the feelings this chapter may cause, however, is more than welcome to be screamed at. 😌
> 
> CW: alcohol, smoking.

“Everything’s fake,” Kyne blurts out before she can properly process what she’s saying, head fuzzy from all the Tequila shots. Priyanka looks at her with a grin, sipping on her cocktail, saying something about agreeing with her, that they all know Scarlett got their lips done back in college, but Kyne stops her. “That’s not what I mean.”

Priyanka knits her brows in a frown, looking puzzled. Kyne supposses she can’t expect much from her, since they’re already drunk as hell, barely able to walk without stumbling—and she’s being unintentionally mysterious, blurting out things like that while they’re outside the bathroom waiting for Scarlett and Bo. Jesus. She has to gather herself and think something coherent.

“My relationship with Kiara, it’s fake,” she clarifies, and it somehow feels as if an invisible weight has been lifted from her shoulders. And then, the regret and panic hits her, as she remembers that no one was supposed to know.

But before she can come up with an excuse—say it’s a joke, or something of the sort—Priyanka narrows her eyes, tilting her head, giving her an accusatory look. “I fucking knew it,” she says, so calm and collected, but Kyne can clearly distinguish the offense behind her words.

Kyne recoils for a moment, blinking repeatedly until she processes what Priyanka just said. “You knew?” 

“Duh.” Priyanka takes a sip of her drink, staring at Kyne dead in the eye. “Well I mean, I kinda suspected it, but you always have this stupid lovey-dovey face when you’re with her, and, I dunno, I never saw you look at anyone like that,” she explains, slurring ever so slightly, but her tone is rather serious—or as serious as someone as drunk as Priyanka can be—and Kyne understands every single word, flushing a deeper shade of red with each one. 

“I don’t like Kiara,” it’s the first thing that comes out of her mouth, a tad too defensive. Though, if she were to be honest, it’s not like she’s entirely wrong—she does feel generally happy around Kiara, unable to bite back a smile with anything related to her. But it’s not “lovey-dovey.” It’s not… Or at least she thinks so.

Anyway. Priyanka cocks an eyebrow—that at the beginning of the night was perfectly painted and now it’s started to smudge around the edges—and presses her index finger on Kyne’s chest, determination burning in her gaze.

“No, you don’t like her—you _love_ her, you stupid bitch,” she declares, proud of her conclusion. If Kyne’s cheeks were red before, now they resemble an apple, even under layers of foundation.

“I fucking don’t—”

“Yes, you do,” Priyanka cuts her off with a solemn tone. Her drink spills ever so slightly from the glass, and Kyne tries to point it out, but Priyanka shushes her. “Oh my god, how did you not know? Of course you’re in love with her, you dumbass. What _else_ did you think would happen? Huh? You made her a fucking _dress_ with _pockets_ for free—”

“That’s technically not true.”

“—and you’re the same bitch that told me I’d have to wait three to five business days for you to fix one of my tank tops!” She finishes her rant with a matter-of-factly tone, sounding as if she just resolved the DaVinci Code. 

Kyne stares blankly at her, trying to find something to deny Priyanka’s crazy theory. Sure, there’s just something about Kiara’s personality out of work hours that attracts her like a magnet, and, and as she found out after spending time with her at the ball, already one week ago, they have incredible chemistry together.

But that doesn’t mean she likes, let alone loves, her.

She’s about to tell Priyanka as much, when they hear Bo and Scarlett call out their names as they exit the bathroom. Before she knows it, they’re roaming around the club again, stopping to dance when there’s good music, and buying drink after drink. 

And she’s having a good time, she really is; Kyne never gets bored when the Dynamic Four are together, more often than not bringing the chaos wherever they are. But Priyanka’s words linger in her mind, heavy on her conscience. Loving Kiara isn’t an option, there’s no way—but does she like her?

Well, as a friend, obviously, otherwise she would’ve never allowed her to crash in her office, even if she was her boss. But there are those fleeting moments, where Kyne’s heart skips a beat when she smiles at her, and how when she loosens up when they’re alone, eyes crinkling when she laughs wholeheartedly at her jokes, it makes her feel warm inside. She never paid them any mind, because she always felt some sort of pride in making her friends laugh, and she’s a raging lesbian, so any pretty girl that smiles at her makes her nervous.

Though now that Priyanka brings it up, she _does_ act differently around Kiara than she would with her regular friends. And Kyne might try to excuse it by saying it’s just her trying to keep the faintest professionalism, but looking at it with a different light, it dawns on her that, holy fucking christ, she actually _likes_ Kiara.

 _Oh_ , _shit_.

It seems almost like a joke from the universe that the second she realized it, she was scrolling through random Instagram Stories, landing on Kiara’s by pure luck. It was a selfie from her and one of her friends, they were out too, apparently to a bar. And Kiara looked so damn stunning, with her flawless make-up, sparkly silver dress and loose curls, her heart does that stupid thing where it beats like it wants to come out of her ribcage. 

Damn. Okay, maybe she does like her, an awful lot at that.

“Pri?” Kyne calls out, leaning with her back pressed against the counter of the bathroom. Priyanka glances at her, trying to salvage her melting eyebrows, cursing through gritted teeth her second hand make-up.

“Yeah?”

“You were right,” she says, the mysterious tone back again, though this time is purposeful, as she’s more sober now. Priyanka vaguely asks her about what, before going back to wiping the sweat around her eyebrows with a tissue. “About liking Kiara. I think I do,” Kyne admits with a defeated tone, bringing a hand to her chest and giving a dramatic sigh.

Priyanka chuckles, lazily looking at Kyne. “Of course I am right, I was right about Carol from accounting fucking Jeff from my team in the janitor closet. Nothing escapes me,” she says, making Kyne laugh a tad too loud than she would if she was fully sober. This is a way too watered down reaction than she expected, but Priyanka does turn into a quieter person when she’s drunk—she’s not sure how that works, considering she’s loud as all hell when she’s sober.

“True, I guess,” Kyne concedes, shifting her position to look directly at her friend. “I wonder if she, uh, if she feels the same,” she asks out loud, not really expecting a reply, but Priyanka shrugs.

“I mean, I don’t know her as you do, clearly, but I’d say as far as you go, you have it _bad_ , because you always were all about ‘eating the rich’ when we were in college, and look at you now, you’re in love with a rich girl,” Priyanka teasingly comments with a snort, and Kyne gasps, offended, as she playfully shoves her.

“I guess so, because I don’t wanna eat her,” she replies, not bothering on correcting Priyanka when she says she loves her, because she knows she won’t be able to get her to understand she doesn’t—yet. A thought crosses her mind when she thinks of Kiara in that royal blue dress she made for her, looking more ethereal than ever, and, bolded by the alcohol, she says after a moment, “I mean, not in _that_ way, but—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Priyanka deadpans, cutting her off again. Her tired expression causes Kyne to go in a fit of giggles, though if she thinks about it for a moment, she’s more so laughing at herself for taking so damn long to figure it out, and not even on her own. Priyanka turns to look at her, finally giving up on salvaging her eyebrows and pinches her in the arm. “If you two get married one day, I demand to be the maid of honor, because your ass would’ve never realized without me,” she declares, matter-of-factly.

Kyne pinches her back, gasping in offense. “I would’ve realized at some point!” Priyanka arches a brow, cocking a hip as she turns to face her. “ _Fine_ , maybe I wouldn’t have. But it’s not my fault emotions are so complicated!” 

Priyanka sighs dramatically, patting Kyne’s shoulder, tossing the dirty tissue in the trash before taking her hand to get out of the bathroom.

They wave through the crowd to find Scarlett and Bo perched against one of the windows for the smokers, talking between drags and occasionally eyeing the people around them. Scarlett asks what took them so long, shouting over the blasting music, and Priyanka just says the bathroom was full. 

Scarlett barely cares for her reply, and Bo just suggests they should take a selfie before anyone else’s make-up starts melting. Priyanka swats her in the arm, but ends up giving in, and they somehow manage to take a picture they all like within three tries. That, in itself, is a miracle. 

They take some more, just to be sure, before Scarlett proposes to buy one last round of drinks—closing time is soon, but it seems like that won’t stop her, so they drag Priyanka along and Kyne stands in her spot, guarding it while she talks to Bo.

“What do you think of this one?” She asks, showing Bo a picture she took at the beginning of the night, striking a pose on the balcony of Priyanka’s apartment, staring at the camera with her signature resting bitch face, but make it fashion. Her tight black leather skirt hugged her curves, and her hot pink crop top looked great against her skin.

Bo takes the phone with her free hand, dying cigarette in the other, and looks at it for a moment before nodding with a complicit smile. “You look hot, do I have to suppose Scarlett took it?”

“You know it.” She gives her a wink, typing in the caption Scarlett’s username, because they always get mad if they don’t get credited for the photos they take of their friends, and stops before posting. “I don’t have a caption in mind right now, do you?” Kyne looks at her, and Bo blows out the smoke before answering.

“I dunno, I always put either a stupid pun or a sex lyric.” Bo shrugs, and it’s not really of much help, but after a moment, Kyne googles the lyrics of that new Pussycat Dolls song. 

_The less you do, the more it makes me crazy,_ she reads, squinting slightly. Kyne supposses it’s somehow fitting—it takes Kiara to smile for her to feel all sorts of things. She hopes it’s a hint discreet enough, and presses post before she chickens out.

It seems like the queue to get a drink hasn’t slowed down, because Scarlett and Priyanka have yet to return, so she checks her phone every so often, definitely not to see if Kiara had liked her photo, between her casual conversation with Bo as she finishes her cigarette.

Bo is saying something about this guy that has been looking at her intently for the past ten minutes when Kyne checks her phone yet again. She was going to lock it again after briefly going through her notifications—until something stuck out to her.

 _@kiara.qc commented on your photo: “you’re hotter than hell”._ Followed by three fire emojis.

She tries to fight back a toothy grin, but that’s next to impossible, and her fingers hover over the screen for a second too long, mind blank.

“Geez, girl, can you make it any more obvious that you’re whipped for Miss Bitch Heiress?” Bo says, and though she tries to play it off as a joke, Kyne knows her well enough to detect the underlying annoyance.

“Don’t call her that,” she says, “She’s not a bitch. And what if I am, anyway?”

Bo merely rolls her eyes, her cigarette all but finished as she stomps on it to light it off. “Oh, c’mon, as if you don’t know,” she scoffs, and it comes off just a little too rude for Kyne’s liking.

“The fuck you mean? Know what?” She squints, locking her phone and placing it in her front pocket. Bo cocks a brow, folding her arms.

“Oh, so you don’t know Kiara fires the girls she sleeps with?”

Kyne’s heart stops for a second, all the color draining from her face as she stares at Bo, curiosity in her expression. She tries to ask why does she think that, but she struggles to form a coherent sentence. 

“I think you forget that me and Scarlett have been working for the company for years now,” she proceeds after a moment, “I was already in my position as PR manager when she started working half-time. And of course she got the special treatment and climbed to an important position within a month there, so now me and Scarlett were receiving orders from a teen fresh from high school.” Kyne wants to say that _technically_ it’s not Kiara’s fault, but Bo goes on before she can open her mouth. “Then, of _course_ she started to sleep around with some of our co-workers. Suspiciously enough, most of them were fired or quit the job shortly after.”

Kyne feels the dread pool at the pit of her stomach—there’s no way this is true, it has to be manufactured office drama, or maybe what really happened was extremely taken out of context. But there’s no way in hell Kiara is that type of person.

“Maybe she’s changed,” she muses, wanting to have the faintest hope that it’s not true. Bo squeezes her shoulder, giving her a pitiful smile.

“Listen, bitch, I love you and shit, but if I were you I’d stop this before you’re way too into it.”

 _It’s too late,_ Kyne thinks, chewing the inside of her cheek.

Priyanka and Scarlett come back shortly after it, and Kyne doesn’t speak to Bo for the rest of the night.

***

When Kyne wakes up next morning, she has a heavenly hangover, and a feeling of hollowness in her heart.

Bo’s words haunted her for the rest of the night, her demeanor doing a full 180°. Fortunately enough, Priyanka and Scarlett were too drunk to notice. But Bo was sober, since she didn’t like to drink, and was their assigned driver, anyway. She _did_ pick up on her change, and Kyne was thankful she was the first one she dropped off once the club closed and they had to go home.

Her bed was a mess, just like her mind, and she didn’t have the strength to reach for her phone and check her latest post on Instagram, knowing Kiara was at the top of the comment section.

Everything she knew to be true about her is suddenly put to the test, and Kyne doesn’t know if she should believe her best friend, who’s only seeking out for her, or Kiara, who has been nothing but kind and sweet and nothing like people think. But maybe Kyne is a little too biased.

And then there’s the fact they’re not really sleeping together, or dating for real, for that matter; if that was true, she can’t fire her once they’re done pretending—or _can_ she? 

She groans out loud, tossing and turning in her bed. Her head is pounding, aching from last night, and the least she needs is over-heating it with such incoherent train of thought.

She’d like to think she’s able to stop liking Kiara for the sake of making things easier once they inevitably break up and things get awkward when people wonder why are they still hanging out, as if nothing happened—she’d really like to, but it’s easier said than done, for her heart plummets against her ears when she replies to Kiara’s comment with a simple red heart, and clicks on her profile, finding that she also posted a photo from last night.

Kyne sighs, admiring the photo a second too long before liking it and locking her phone, knowing things will be awkward on Monday morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments are very much appreciated!!! my tumblr is @dollalpaca, home hang out xo


	6. I broke my word, and you were bound to see

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE'RE ENTERING THE FINAL CURB FOLKS. i've decided to make this 9 chapters instead, for practicity more than anything. but also that means these two dumbasses will be hurt, a lot. that being said, this chapter sure has some feelings, i am not responsible for how you may react to them. thanks to emerald (@fromthenorthernskies) for beta-ing 💓

“I have good news and bad news,” Kiara starts, trying to not let the nerves show in her voice. Kyne turns to look at her, drifting her attention to the intricately designed cupcakes, cocking a brow.

“Well, that explains why you kept your hands to yourself so far,” she teases, cleaning the edges of her mouth with her index finger. Kiara absolutely doesn't follow the trail her finger makes without blinking once. “C'mon, rip the bandaid off at once and tell me the bad news first,” Kyne says, leaning back in her chair, curiously eyeing her up.

Shit. She was hoping she'd ask for the good news first.

Kiara fidgets with her rings, trying to remember the rehearsed speech she'd gone over with Rita and Tynomi before coming to Kyne's office like she always did; of course, now there was a _slight_ change of plans. She chews the inside of her cheek, thinking. 

When asking for her friends’ advice on how to bring the bad news up, Tynomi had straight up told her that she had to stop acting so awkward—why start now if she was acting perfectly fine before realizing she was head over heels for Kyne? Rita had swatted her, but by her expression Kiara could tell she somewhat agreed with her. 

They both had said the same thing as Kyne, to rip the bandaid without thinking much. But over-thinking is Kiara's second nature, and all she wants to do is turn it off. 

So she does the next logical thing and unceremoniously drops the bomb.

“I am appalled to inform you my mom’s birthday party is this Sunday, and she has threatened to disown me if I don't bring you,” she announces, her tone far too solemn and sorrowful for Kyne to take seriously. So she laughs. The bitch actually laughs, before she realizes Kiara is for real. 

“Fuck, you’re serious, aren’t you?” she whispers, eyes blown wide as her hands tremble. “Shit, I thought it was a one-time thing?” Her voice is full of fear and concern, and Kiara can't honestly blame her. That _was_ the deal—one time it's good enough, and then they'll figure out when they're going to break up without making it suspicious.

But they've been postponing it _a lot_. Kiara's not sure why, but everytime she tries to bring it up things just take a different turn; they end up watching movies with homemade popcorn at Kyne's place, talking about shitty movies over coffee on the weekends, modelling the clothes Kyne tweaked after thrifting them—one way or another they've avoided the elephant in the room. And now, three weeks after the ball, soon to be a month, they have no intention of stopping this scheme, and Kiara feels somehow guilty.

She's indulging a lot on the fakeness of it all, running her hand through Kyne's hair when she falls asleep in the middle of the movies, walking around the company with her hand firmly placed on her waist, showing Kyne off in all of her social media—Kiara would like to think it's real, that her feelings _are_ reciprocated, but she prefers to think that the sneaky smiles and the stares are a product of her imagination.

Tynomi had told her to stop dancing around it like a moron and actually tell Kyne about her feelings, that she wants a real relationship and not just pretend. Rita had more or less agreed with Tynomi, without all the bluntness Tynomi was known for, that is.

“I thought that would be it, too, but— well, it seems that they liked you. Like, a lot,” she stammers out, cheeks blushing under Kyne’s inquisitive gaze. _They’re not the only ones that like you,_ Kiara thinks, but she leaves it unsaid.

Kyne chews on her lower lip, fidgeting with a pen as she stares right past Kiara. She hasn’t seen her this spaced out since, well, the day before the ball in which she confided that she was scared to meet her parents. She wouldn’t be surprised if some of those nerves are still there, looming at the back of her mind.

She finally meets her gaze, and Kiara certainly doesn’t expect what comes next.

“I’m not doing it.”

She blinks repeatedly, not fully processing what Kyne just said.

“What? But—”

“I said no,” Kyne sternly cuts her off, and Kiara wants to shrink on her seat and hide away, not only from the embarrassment but also because of Kyne’s fiery gaze. It’s the first time she’s seen her this angry, but she knows she doesn’t like it. “You said it was a one-time thing, I’ve already done my part of the deal. I’m really risking my job here, y’know? I’m not sure I’d keep it if your parents find out their little girl got her heart broken by a bitchy accountant.” Her tone is cold and cutthroat, like a knife straight to Kiara’s heart.

She doesn’t know where all of this comes from—the expressionless stare and pointed glare, icy as a crude Canadian winter, where there used to be the warmth of a late summer night.

Kiara is still speechless when Kyne mumbles something she can’t quite catch. “What did you say?” She asks, tilting her head slightly. Kyne just dismisses it with a wave of her hand, saying it was nothing; but by her flustered expression Kiara can tell it’s something.

She doesn’t push for an answer. She’s already on Kyne’s bad side; the last thing she wants to do is fight with her.

“You’re right, your part of the deal is done. I’ll make up an excuse, I'm sure my mom will believe it.” Kiara shrugs, not giving much away in her expression, because she doesn't want Kyne to see how much it affects her—because it _shouldn't_ affect her at all. 

Their deal is over, for all she knows. And it's probably the thing she hates the most. 

“I believe you still have good news to tell me, though,” Kyne muses quietly, meekly meeting Kiara's gaze. The anger is gone, a tinge of regret replacing it, and Kiara bites back a sigh of relief.

Then, she remembers the good news she had to tell her—good news with a lot of air commas.

She bites her lower lip, all her confidence gone out the window now that she barely avoided an argument with Kyne.

 _I guess Tynomi was right,_ she thinks, _I should've done this over a nice dinner instead of our morning hangout._

Kiara barely scrambles to think of fake good news to give her, which, in the end, it's not so fake. “I succumb, we can watch Legend of Korra together next time we have movie night at your place,” she says, and the smile that blooms on Kyne's face makes her heart tug—both because she never gets tired of the sight of her eyes crinkling at the corners, and because she just threw Rita and Tynomi's motivational speeches to the trash.

Kyne chatters away about how excited she is that she finally relented, and that they'll spend all night long watching the show if it's necessary. But Kiara can only think of all of the conversations she had with her friends over the past few days, psyching her up and giving her motivation to come clean to Kyne about her feelings.

God, Tynomi sure would love to slap some sense into her if she were there. 

She sighs internally; _if only Kyne had chosen the good news first._

***

“I completely fucked up whatever chances I had with her,” Kiara laments, unceremoniously draping herself all over Rita's couch. “Fuck, I should have had a back-up plan instead of thinking everything would go like I thought it would. _Calisse de tabarnak, j'ai fait n'importe quoi._ ”

“I’m not sure what you said, but it’s probably nothing lady-like,” Tynomi quips, settling on the other couch. Rita just sighs and stands on her tip-toes to grab her nice alcohol; it’s barely Wednesday, but when has that stopped them?

It’s not unusual for them to crash Rita’s place for a drink whenever they’re having a shitty day—Rita has an extensive collection of liquor (“Not because I’m an alcoholic,” she says when you ask her, “I just like to be ready in case of anything.” Then she shrugs, because it just makes sense that Rita is that kind of person) and a really cozy apartment. Rita’s place is heaven for all they know.

“No, it’s not lady-like at all,” Rita replies after a moment, fetching three glasses, “but then again, that’s not the point; Kiki, would you like to walk us through what happened?” She asks kindly, sitting cross-legged on the ground as she pours generous amounts of red wine in their glasses.

Kiara rolls over on the couch, groaning against the pillows, but she figures there's no use holding it all in. She rolls over once again, staring at the ceiling as Rita sets the glass of wine near her, but she doesn't even reach for it.

She tells them of Kyne's icy glare as she said no, putting her foot down with a tone so determined, so void of any emotion but anger—how she didn't _say_ it, but Kiara could distinguish in the turmoil of her eyes that she thought about calling off their deal right there and then. After all, they were done, weren't they?

At some point she sits upwards, grabbing the glass and taking a big swig. Rita and Tynomi say nothing, but they're probably thinking of something useful to say—all of the other times she's come to them for advice, it had been over mundane things such as how to not choke the annoying men at work, how to make her heart stop beating like crazy whenever Kyne was around, and ultimately how to gather up the courage to confess her feelings.

Of course, this is uncharted territory and they're going in completely clueless as to how to aid their friend.

So Tynomi just reaches for the bottle, pours herself another drink, and looks at Kiara with a tired expression.

“Break up and get over her,” she says, like it's the easiest thing ever, but Kiara shakes her head right away. “I’m just _saying_ Kyne’s right, your deal is over, and y’know, she has a point. Don’t you remember what happened with Abril?” Tynomi asks, cocking a skeptical brow.

Almost instantly a cushion flies directly to Tynomi’s face, courtesy of Rita, who doesn’t waste a second in scolding her—they’re not supposed to say her name, or talk about her, or reference her, or _anything_ really, she says, slipping into French from time to time, and Tynomi is quick to reply, voices overlapping.

“It’s fine, whatever, I get the point you’re trying to make, Nono,” Kiara says over the noise, dismissing it with a wave of her hand, slightly annoyed at the mention of her— not ex- _girlfriend_ precisely, but something along those lines. _Well, we’re making progress_ , she thinks, mind going back to all the times she had either teared up or broken something at the mention of her. 

Perhaps it has to do with the fact Kyne has her wrapped around her finger—yeah, that’s probably it. Which isn’t all that good in these circumstances.

“Either way,” Kiara follows, tucking her legs under her body, “I’m not sure if I want to break up with Kyne yet,” she muses quietly, lowering her voice like she’s telling them a secret.

Rita sighs, Tynomi rolls her eyes, and their gazes meet for a split second before Rita speaks again, much calmer now.

“But you won’t tell her you like her either, won’t you?” She asks, tilting her head slightly, with that careful tone she always uses when she knows she’s bound to touch a sensitive spot. Kiara huffs, but she begrudgingly replies _I suppose not_ between gritted teeth. “Then I guess it makes no sense to drag this further, don’t you think? Kyne _does_ have a point, like it or not.” Rita, ever the voice of reason, stares at Kiara as she takes a sip from her drink, and Kiara groans like a child that’s just been scolded, plastering her face against the cushions again.

She hates when Rita is right, because she always ends up doing whatever she suggests she does, and while Kiara _does_ avoid many conflicts and problems by following her advice, it’s never been about relationships or feelings—well, romantic feelings; she feels like throwing her heels at every straight white man at company meetings, and Rita has to take her outside to cool down and drill into her brain that, even if it _would_ be funny knocking out one of these men, it wouldn’t be as funny once they retrieve their economic support for her father’s projects. And then Kiara begrudgingly adjusts her heels back, counts until ten and returns. Because she _knows_ she’s a damn smart businesswoman, capable of sealing any kind of deal.

But it seems like her ability for negotiating prices and contracts doesn’t translate well when it comes to negotiating relationships.

Kiara finally shifts her head, looks at the expectant pair, and sighs in a dramatic manner.

“I _suppose_ I can consider it,” she gives in in a long suffering tone, and Rita chuckles alongside Tynomi.

***

On Sunday, Kiara struggles to give her mom an excuse as to why Kyne’s not there to meet the rest of their extended family, and once she finally stammers out an answer she knows for a fact her mom didn’t believe a single word. She spares her, either way, and keeps on greeting the family that keeps arriving.

Although she gets the eerie feeling that her mom spared her for the sole fact that, as soon as she settles down at the table, one of her aunts asks about her girlfriend, a faux sweet tone she’s all familiar with, and freezes for a second.

Shit, she should’ve known her parents would run their mouth.

Well, there’s nothing she can do about it now; so she just answers questions without going into the details, lies through gritted teeth when she says her girlfriend doesn’t like pictures—even though she posts dumb selfies every other minute to her close friends story. The kids ask about her girlfriend, too, mostly her nephews; they want to know if it’s true their auntie has a partner, and if she’s more forgiving when they break things around the house. Kiara just laughs, something tightening in her chest when she thinks of Kyne covering up for the kids when they break a vase or something like that in family gatherings, a wicked grin on her face as she ushers them out and tries to convince Kiara it was just a silly little accident.

And on _god_ the image is tempting, making her insides churn and a warm feeling spread through her chest, at the same time it leaves to be replaced for a hollowness she can’t quite shake.

There’s no way to make that image come true, for Kyne would have to reciprocate her feelings first. That’s harder than actually getting the guts to tell her how she feels.

So she does the next logical thing once she’s a little tipsy; she sends Kyne the classic _we have to talk_ text, adding a hey at the beginning and a please at the end to not seem so dry. If it works she doesn’t know, but she does get a response within a few minutes.

_Kyne: i’ll come by your office tomorrow, want anything from the starbucks around the block?_

Kiara half smiles, typing out her reply and hitting send before she chickens out.

She hears a loud crash coming from the hallway, and she sighs heavily when she perches one of her youngest nephews to her hip, softly scolding him before handing it to his mom without saying anything, and goes to fetch a broom and a stick to clean out the mess. The image fights its way back into her head, but Kiara tries to push it aside for all that’s holy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't you love it when the dumbasses can't T A L K like normal functioning adults? i do. if i made you roll your eyes, you owe me a comment hehe. hmu on tumblr @dollalpaca - see you next time!


	7. Some just rather say goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT, I've been going crazy with school, but I'm almost free, and true to my fashion, I wrote this instead of sleeping 😌 It's fine, I'm fine. Hopefully y'all like the chapter, you can yell at me over in my tumblr @dollalpaca - thanks to Emerald (@fromthenorthernskies) for beta-ing! We're nearing the end, but these dumbasses still can't figure their shit out.

Priyanka doesn’t slap her when she tells her, though she wants to. Badly.

“You stupid _bitch_ ,” she exclaims, invading her personal space as she leans foward, mouth agape. Kyne doesn’t know if she should laugh or push her away, so she does the next logical thing and shoves Priyanka off, reaching for the bowl of chips. “You like her, but you’re gonna break up with her? Kyne, what the _fuck_.”

Kyne cringes only a little, partially because she’s sure even the people from the other building are able to hear Priyanka’s annoyed yell, and she knew this would be her reaction the moment the words left her mouth. The moment she had gotten that message from Kiara, she knew their scheme was bound to end—what _else_ could she possibly want to talk about? Not the weather, obviously and not-- not Kyne’s stupid fantasy of a love confession, definitely not that.

So, only one option was left, and the clearest one at that. Kyne couldn’t bear the anticipation pooling at the pit of her stomach, so she did the next logical thing and invited Priyanka over, otherwise she would’ve ended up without nails by Monday.

She sighs a little, not letting the defeat show in her face.

“Not everything _has_ a happy ending, Pri. And, y’know, we could still be friends, I guess.” Kyne shrugs, taking a mouthful of chips, and Priyanka knits her brows in a frown, silent for a moment too long. Kyne tenses.

 _Oh no_. Priyanka, silent? Something is coming. Most likely, something Kyne won’t like to hear.

“No,” Priyanka finally says, quizzically. Kyne cocks a brow, setting the chips bowl back on the coffee table. 

“No?” She repeats.

Priyanka gives her a look; not a fiery one, like she always has when she’s about to give her a heartfelt speech when she feels like she might need one. No. It’s hard to put a finger on the emotion she’s looking at her with, but it’s neither pity nor concern—it might just be easier to call it a _Priyanka-esque_ look. 

“No, this isn’t like you at all,” she says, folding her arms, an accusatory tone dripping from her tongue. Ah, shit. Not another pep-tak. “Fuck, if you were to tell me years ago that _Kyne_ , the one bitch that stuck up to _fucking_ Professor Brooke Lynn Hytes back in college, because she knew she had graded her papers wrong, would even _think_ of giving up on a girl she likes, just because she might get in trouble with her parents I woud tell you to fuck right off, because that’s not my friend. Not at all.”

Kyne groans, rolls her eyes and grabs the nearest pillow to smash her head against. It annoys her that Priyanka is right, _again_. She hasn’t let her live down the fact she had to tell her she liked Kiara for her to realize, to begin with. And she’s convinced she’s never going to hear the end of it when--

\--when there’s a pat on her head, and a heavy sigh.

She looks up and sees Priyanka, gazing at her with a more understanding gaze. She doesn’t look like she wants to strangle her—not for now, at least.

“You should tell her, y’know,” she says, with a tone that conveys she knows she’s right. Kyne _knows_ she is, and she hates it. Priyanka _might_ be stupid sometimes, but she’s stupidly cunning—for important things, anyway. And this, Kyne thinks, she’s deemed important.

So she just avoids her gaze, fidgeting with her hands. “But what if it’s not mutual? What do I do then? She’ll think I only accepted to be her fake girlfriend to use her.” She chews the inside of her cheek. It had been more than a recurring thought ever since she realized her feelings for Kiara, and more than once it had slipped through her mind. The idea that Kiara would just straight up stop talking to her if she thought she’d been used this whole time. That, or she would be fired on the spot.

(Bo’s words still run through her mind every so often, and it’s becoming rarer and far in between the times when she lets Kiara touch her in any way. Because if she does, Kyne’s not sure if she would be able to hold back.)

Priyanka groans, pulling and pinching the skin under her eyes. “God, I know you’re-- that _we_ are lesbians, but god _damn,_ not even I am this useless, and I’ve been pining for Kiara’s secretary for months now!”

“You’ve been pining for Lena?” Kyne echoes, but Priyanka dismisses it with a wave of her hand.

“Don’t change the topic, that’s my job, and I don’t wanna change it now. What I _mean,_ is that Kiara definitely likes you, but you’re literally the last to know. Again.”

Kyne blinks, what Priyanka said not fully sinking in just _yet_. Then, she bushes furiously, much like the first time, and shoves Priyanka.

“No she _doesn’t_.”

“Oh my God, I will actually murder you one of these days.” Priyanka pinches the bridge of her nose, and then looks at her with a tired expression. “Yes, she fucking _does_. You literally spend all your time with her, and you haven’t picked up on the way she looks at you? I _swear_ it’s the most stupid, lovey-dovey look I’ve ever seen, I’m disgusted just thinking about it,” she says, making faces and pulling her tongue out, and it really doesn’t help the blush that takes power in Kyne’s cheeks.

Dear Jesus, not _another_ thing Priyanka had been able to pick up on her relationship with Kiara _before_ her. She should get her a date with Lena, maybe that way she’ll stay out of her business.

But right now, there’s really no escaping Priyanka, since this is her own apartment, and she can’t kick her out at 1 a.m., so she sits through the scolding with an annoyed glare that Priyanka can’t care less about.

“Pri, stop, I get it; I’m dumb, blind, whatever. I _know_ ,” Kyne finally says, stopping Priyanka’s pointless rant about Kyne being the biggest useless lesbian she knows. She sighs heavily, knowing Priyanka won’t like what she’s about to hear. “And as much as I’d like to believe you, I don’t wanna risk my job, just because you’re delusional again.”

Priyanka yelps, slightly offended, and squints at her. “You know she can’t fire you just because, right?” She asks slowly, and Kyne scoffs. Of course she knows. But if she fired girls she slept with and no one batted an eye, then what are the odds she’ll be any different?

She tells Priyanka what Bo told her in big details, and she looks at her in disbelief.

“Fuck all the way off, that’s not true.”

Kyne cocks a brow, “How do you know?”

“Because Bo hates Kiara’s guts since her father fired one of her friends, but, like, they were on their right to fire her. She was purposely sabotaging projects, I think it was because her sister had married some dude owner of a rival company; the details are kinda blurry.” Priyanka folds her arms, an accusatory glance twinkles in her eyes, though it’s not directed at her, not really. “Didn’t you know? It’s all she talks about since you became closer with Kiara.”

Kyne blinks repeatedly, not really believing what she’s just heard. Priyanka’s stare is burning a hole through her, expecting an answer, but Kyne swears there’s white noise engulfing her, numbing her; the only thing she feels are her nails digging in her palms.

Bo lied to her? How could she? Even if she didn’t like Kiara, she had no right to lie to her; especially knowing full well she’d believe her. They were friends, after all.

Well, maybe tomorrow they won’t be.

“Why— why would she lie to me? I don’t get it.”

She knows Bo is as fiercely protective as she’s petty, holding grudges until she forgets why she was mad in the first place. But this? This is a low blow.

Priyanka shrugs, not really sure either. “I don’t know, girl, but she must have a good explanation. This doesn’t sound like her at all,” she offers, and Kyne desperately hopes she’s right.

She would never be able to forgive Bo for making her replace all the eagerness and comfort she felt around Kiara with panic and heightened fear of losing her job, every time their hands brushed and Kiara’s tentative fingers tried to reach for her.

Well, maybe she would, but it would take many apologies and a drink or three. Or maybe a whole bottle.

***

Monday morning comes around, and Kyne tries to not break the foam cup with Kiara's coffee with her tight grip, anxiety pooling in her stomach at the sole thought of what she's about to do.

Priyanka spent the entire night trying to convince her to just tell Kiara about her feelings, to woman up and rip the bandaid at once without much thinking. Kyne had finally relented only when they were about to fall fast asleep, and the alcohol was making the room spin ever so slightly, as she decided she didn't have anything to lose by telling Kiara of her feelings.

If she ended up losing her job, Priyanka had said she could hook her up with one of her cousins, a well-respected lawyer, so they could sue the Schatzis for all they had. Of course she wished they didn't have to go to that extreme, and even dared to dream of a movie-like moment.

Of course, dreams are a thing completely different in reality, she reminds herself of that when she lets herself in Kiara's office, briefly greeting Lena and sliding past her, who doesn't even give her much of a glance.

(At some point Lena stopped caring about her, even developed a sixth sense to know whenever she was around to not waste her time in telling her to wait a second so she could tell Kiara she was coming.)

Kiara is already scribbling something on a notepad, holding her phone to her ear with her other hand, and Kyne knows that by the scowl plastered on her face she should wait a second before saying anything.

But then she glances up, her expression easing up in a second as a smile blooms on her face, signaling her to sit down, doing silly faces when she points at the phone, and she wants to laugh stupidly loud because anything Kiara does she finds endearing, but they'll have time for that later.

“They were out of chocolate chips, so I brought you a blueberry muffin,” Kyne says once she hangs up, omitting the part of her knowing blueberry is her second favorite flavor, because she mentioned months ago and she never forgot. She can say that later, so she just passes her the paper bag with the muffin and her cup of coffee. 

Kiara smiles at her, saying a polite thank you as she gives the muffin a bite, leaning back on her chair, looking already tired of work when it's barely starting.

There's silence for a moment too long, where they just eat and sip, but nothing lasts forever, so Kiara is the one to break it.

“I think you'll remember I wanted to talk about something,” she begins, and Kyne nods, prompting her to go on. She's too confident in what she's about to say, thinks they're on the same page. 

Nothing prepares her for when Kiara leans forward, the smile all but gone and replaced with a neutral expression, and Kyne just knows something is bad. That this won't end like she wants.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” she continues, fidgeting with her rings, avoiding her gaze. When she locks eyes with her, there isn't any hint of the warmth and kindness is used to see in them. They're hollow, void of any emotion. Her throat closes up in anticipation. “And I think you're right, we should end this pretend relationship before it goes too far.”

Kyne blinks, once then twice, until she's awkwardly staring at Kiara, digging her nails in her palms.

 _Fuck,_ she thinks. And for a long second her mind is just a loop of the word _fuck._ This isn't even Kiara's doing, it's hers, her own words and actions came back to bite her in the ass, and there's no way she can blame Kiara for wanting to call it quits after she snapped at her.

Her plans are gone to waste, there's no way she can bring up the way she feels about her after this. It just wouldn't be right. So she does the next thing she knows best; she deflects.

“Well, I mean, do you think it's been enough time for people to not get suspicious?” She manages to stutter out, trying for the love of her dignity to not let the quiver in her voice give away the tears that are to come at some point.

Her nails dig in her palms further, probably drawing blood, when Kiara just shrugs. Like she doesn't _care._ And it stings like a bitch.

“Does it matter? For all I know, we've done more than enough. I think it's a good time to stop before-- it's just the time.” Kiara clears her throat, and Kyne wants to ask before _what,_ before she falls even more in love with her, if that's even possible? 

So she inhales sharply, taking a long sip from her coffee, finishing it all in one motion, and tries to not let it show in her expression how much it actually affects her.

“For all _I_ know, I really liked being your fake-girlfriend,” she confesses, and it's not really a lie, but it isn't the entire truth. Kyne _did_ like every second of it, even if at the beginning her mind was clouded with anxiety and fears, she liked having lunch with her and spending time together outside work hours, liked when she laughed so hard she ran out of air, and her nose scrunched up and she made a weird sound that she said she was ashamed of. She liked when she'd absent-mindlessly run her hands through her hair when they were watching a movie together, and it would send shivers down her spine. 

(And Kiara, she just likes all about Kiara. She likes Kiara.)

It’s just that, for a fleeting moment, she hoped they could be real, that even if Priyanka was wrong and Kiara didn’t like her back, she could grow to like her.

Maybe she could’ve loved her if she had been given the chance. Maybe she could’ve loved her either way, if she had been given more time. Maybe she could’ve loved her.

(She could’ve.)

“You can keep my cupcake, I'm not hungry,” Kyne says, giving her a smile, one that doesn’t reach her eyes, one that probably looks forced and not at all real, but she can’t be bothered right now. Not when she feels her heart ache and a lump in her throat prevents her from speaking. 

Kiara just blinks, about to say something else when Kyne leaves without saying anything; she knows the second she opens her mouth, a choked sob would come out.

In exchange, Kiara doesn’t say anything to her for the rest of the day, and the day becomes the week, and it stings deeply in Kyne’s chest. She was _so_ close to saying it, to stop letting the words linger in the air and manifest them. 

But it’s over now. So suddenly and abruptly, and it's all her fault.

Kyne supposses it’s her own fault for not being honest sooner, for letting the lies numb her good judgement. She knew Kiara, it was impossible that she was capable of any of the things Bo said she did were true, and yet—

She shakes her head, trying to concentrate on her job.

Kiara not talking to her isn't the end of the world she thinks it is, even if it feels like it. She'll eventually get over it, find someone new and forget she ever felt something for her. 

But God, it's easier said than done, when she sees her every day around the company, and for once she _knows_ where the rumours of her being cold hearted come from; she doesn't see her crack a smile _once_. Not even the tiniest smirk, and if Kyne didn't know better she'd say the two women she's always hanging out with look at her when she passes by with an annoyed glance. 

Kyne wants the earth to open and swallow her whole. 

By the second week of silence, she catches Kiara's glance on her way to a meeting by pure chance; she's looking at Bo, who's telling her about this guy from Tinder she's been seeing, just when Kiara is coming out from another office. Their eyes meet for a fleeting moment, and it digs a deeper hole in her chest when she finds they're still void of any emotion.

 _Fuck,_ she misses her so much. Kyne swears she could cry right there and then if she didn't have to speak at a stupid budget meeting for a new project.

“So is it true?” Bo says enigmatically, and Kyne cocks a brow.

“What?”

“That you and Miss Bitch Heiress broke up.” She stops in her tracks, shit, news fly fast, don't they? Bo gives her a pitiful smile and a pat on the shoulder, but Kyne swats her hand away.

“Don't act like you didn't want this to happen,” she snarls, resuming her walk. She hasn't brought up that she knows she lied to her, because that implies reminding herself how much she royally fucked up, so she's been avoiding it. Kyne sure has a talent for avoiding her problems until they blow up in her face.

“Well, I sure as hell didn't want you getting hurt because of her,” Bo tries to defend herself, but Kyne just rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, sure,” she merely replies, not looking at her, hurrying her steps, feeling a lump growing in her throat by the second. 

It bottles up, like it always does, even though she promised Priyanka she'd try to let it out. The thing is, as much as Kyne knows she can trust Priyanka, it's not like she isn't constantly worried of being a burden with her feelings ever since Kiara called their pretend relationship quits, so she tries to limit the amount of things she tells Priyanka. 

She doesn't tell her she barely sleeps, that she can't see cupcakes without feeling nauseous, that she picks up her pace when she walks by the restaurant she took Kiara to for the first time - that she's even contemplated burning the damn dress she bought her. That it pains her to look at it every time she opens her closet and sees it hanging there, among her other clothes, because it sticks as a sore thumb out and it reminds her of how happy she was that night with her. 

It all bottles up, and admittedly, she should've known better than to drink her feelings away.

It's Friday night, and they're at a new bar that opened around Scarlett's place. She's actually put effort in her appearance, curling her hair and picking one of her prettiest dresses, done her best eyeshadow in ages—and _yet,_ no amount of tequila shots can fill up the void she feels in her chest.

She ends up crying and admitting how she really feels when she accompanies Priyanka outside for a quick smoke that turns into a full therapy session. Or well, something akin to it.

“I miss her,” Kyne cries out, Priyanka wipes the tears away before the rimmel ruins her whole face.

“I know,” she replies simply.

“Shit, should I call her now and tell her everything?” Priyanka groans, visibly cringing.

“Baby, gimme your phone, you’re not calling anyone at three a.m. unless it’s an Uber,” she says, reaching to grab Kyne’s phone, and for a drunk person she’s far too quick to move her hand away.

“But--”

“Listen, bitch, you know I love talking and giving pep talks,” Priyanka cuts her off, “ _But_ , I am sure you would forget it by the morning, so we’re not having this conversation right now.”

Kyne rolls her eyes, folding her arms; why Priyanka has to be right even when both are one shot away from being drunk out of their minds? It’s not fair.

“So, now that’s sorted out,” she says, stomping on her cigarette, “We’re going home bitch, I can’t have you following me around the bar looking like a raccoon,” Priyanka speaks matter-of-factly, and Kyne gasps offended, swatting her arm. But she ends up giving in when she unlocks her phone and sees what her tears have done to her rimmel.

They go back inside to find the others to tell them that they’re leaving, and Kyne doesn’t have time to think of an excuse to give Scarlett as to why her eyes look puffy when Priyanka tells them what happened. Scarlett immediately coos and wraps her in a clumsy hug, saying how sorry she is, that she looked so happy with Kiara, she never would’ve imagined it would end so soon.

“Bobo, shut the fuck up before I cry again,” she warns, half-jokingly, half-serious. Scarlett lets her go, but a decided look settles on their face.

“Fuck _no_ bitch, you need us now; we’re all goin’ back to my place, and we’re not lettin’ you go to sleep until you crack a smile-- and stop lookin’ like a damn raccoon.”

“I don’t look like a raccoon!” Kyne yelps, offended.

“Yes, you do,” Bo pipes up, and Kyne grumbles while her friends laugh at her expense.

So, they make their way back to Scarlett’s apartment, arms linked as they talk about anything that comes up to their minds to distract Kyne. And it works, she laughs until her stomach hurts, and tears pool at the corner of her eyes, except they’re not sad tears this time, and she feels so grateful for her friends as she kicks off her shoes, and Scarlett drags Priyanka to help them re-arrange things in her room to fit everyone.

She’s left alone with Bo, who’s been rather silent towards her these past days. Kyne knows why, but she isn’t sure right now it’s the time to bring it up.

Of course, nothing ever goes like she wants it to, so Bo clears her throat before speaking.

“Kyne, listen, I have something to tell you--”

“I know,” Kyne cuts her off, not wanting to deal with this right now. “Priyanka, she told me you hate Kiara. She told me why, she told me everything.” She meets Bo’s gaze, and it hurts her only a little when she sees the regret in her expression. Her petty side is stronger when she’s drunk.

Bo inhales sharply before speaking, “Yeah, I know. Priyanka scolded me about it when you refused to go out for lunch with us for the third time in a row,” she admits, toying with the hem of her shirt. “Listen, I didn’t mean for this to happen, I was trying to look out for you so you wouldn’t get hurt, but--”

“But it happened either way,” Kyne finishes, sinking further into Scarlett’s couch. Bo sighs, sitting next to her.

“And I’m sorry about it, you really did look happy,” she muses quietly, giving her a pat on the shoulder. Kyne can’t be bothered to swat her away again. “I guess I never really forgot her for breaking my friend Abril’s heart.”

Kyne frowns, curious; Kiara never spoke of any Abril. “Is that your friend that sabotaged projects and shit?” She wonders, turning to look at her. Bo sighs heavily.

“Yup, the one and only. She was Kiara’s friend from college, and she was the one that got her the job. I think they were dating at that point, I don’t remember well,” Bo recalls, trying to make sense of the blurry memories. In the end, she dismisses it with a wave of her hand. “Whatever. Now that I’m being honest, I wasn’t even sure the rumors about her sleeping around were true, I just believed them out of spite.”

She blinks repeatedly, not really believing what she’s hearing.

“So you feel bad for the girl that used Kiara and betrayed her trust, instead of feeling bad for the girl that got her reputation ruined before she actually started working at the company?” Kyne says slowly, and Bo cringes at herself.

“When you put it like that it makes me sound like an asshole,” she complains, and Kyne almost snaps her optic nerve with the way she rolled her eyes.

She’s over this discussion already, and she’s not really sure what did she gain out of it; closure, maybe? Whatever it is, she decides she’ll think this new information through when she’s more sober—and her face doesn’t itch with the ruined foundation. So she just stands up and asks Bo if she’s going to take her make-up off, and Bo follows her to the bathroom without saying anything.

Later on, when Priyanka and Scarlett are done scattering blankets and pillows on the ground, she’s able to sleep peacefully for what feels like the first time in years. Maybe she should keep this in mind for the next time a rich girl breaks her heart; there isn’t a better way to sleep than using Scarlett as a pillow, while Priyanka is sprawled over her and, ironically enough, butting heads with Bo.

* * *

Another Monday comes around, and Priyanka has decided to put the non-sense to an end. She solemnly walks up to Rita Baga’s office, saying to Tynomi that she has important business stuff to discuss with her. Yes, like that. 

Tynomi side-eyes her, but ends up letting her in, anyway. It’s still early and she knows for a fact Rita doesn’t have anything important until ten a.m., so she sends Priyanka in.

Rita looks as imponent as she always does, and the way she quirks her eyebrow at Priyanka absolutely does not intimidate her.

Fine, maybe a little.

“How can I help you, miss…?” She squints, and only then Priyanka remembers she’s never properly talked with her. 

“My name’s Priyanka, and you can help me by listening to me and then talking some sense into your friend,” she says, and Rita cocks her head, furrowing her brow. Okay, maybe she should be more specific. “I’m Kyne’s best friend, and if my instinct is right, Kiara is as sad for their break up as her. Which is why I need your help; you see, my idiot is convinced your idiot hates her, but I know better than that, so if you’d help me to push them to talk things out, I will be eternally grateful.” 

Should she be calling Kiara an idiot in front of her friend and fellow CEO? Probably not, but anyway, what’s done is done.

Rita goes from confused to surprised, to confused again. She clears her throat before speaking, “I’m sorry, I thought Kyne was the one that wanted to end things…?”

“Oh, it’s a bit of a complicated situation, but I assure you, she absolutely regrets snapping at Kiara.”

They stare at each other for a long second, before Rita finally reaches for her phone and calls up her secretary.

“Tynomi, would you mind coming in for a minute? We have a bit of a problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh n o n, what will happen now that they've united to fuck shit up? will they actually t a l k? who knows! thanks for reading, kudos and comments are very appreciated 😌


	8. I read those pages, you really love me, baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT'S POPPIN HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MERRY NEW YEAR. I'm sorry for not posting sooner!!! I had writers block and was super busy with school, but now I'm on summer vacations! Writing this chapter was a tad hard because I can't process the fact it's ending. Only the epilogue left my dudes! It's the end of a story but the start of a legacy. I'm not gonna do the sappy speech YET. So, enjoy this monster of a chapter (7.4K) and thanks to Emerald for beta-ing it!!

Normally, it’s Rita or Tynomi that look down on Kiara with a brow cocked, lips pursed and quizzical gaze—but lately life has been as strange as it comes, so it doesn’t really phase her when she finds the roles reversed.

She’s in her office, going over the contract of a new partnership, pen dangling from her lips, when Rita enters without knocking and tells her they’re going out to this new bar that opened some weeks ago. No, she can’t argue, and yes, it’s imperative she goes. Kiara is sure this is the first time she’s the one looking at Rita with the implicit question of _“what are you planning now?”_.

“Yeah, I can’t; family dinner,” Kiara says vaguely, going back to look at the contract, though she has to restart the same sentence five times before any of the words stick—not when the only thing she can think of is that she has to break the news to her parents that Kyne and her aren’t “together” anymore, especially knowing her mom never stopped insisting she bring her to family dinners.

Rita goes back to being the one to silently judge her with a brow cocked, her stare piercing right through her. “And I have a feeling you’d rather stab your own foot than attending that dinner,” she says, tone sharp and straight to the point. Kiara clenches her jaw. 

Anyone with functioning eyes and a taste for gossip knows of the rumors going around already, of the whispers saying Kyne and Kiara broke up because of Kiara’s fault, that she was too overbearing, that Kyne couldn’t put up with a spoiled brat like her, and _really_ , it’s whatever. She doesn’t _care_. It’s not like it’s the first time someone spreads rumors about her that weren’t true, so it’s easy to turn a blind eye on those.

But she draws the line when she hears people talking shit about Kyne.

She doesn’t hear it directly, because everyone shuts up as soon as she’s near, of course, but they sure don’t shut up when Tynomi’s near, or Rita, or even Lena—in fact, it’s almost granted that Lena will get approached to be asked about Kiara and Kyne’s alleged break up the moment she steps foot in any resting room in the whole building; poor Lena hasn’t been able to drink her morning coffee in peace for weeks—, and the things they repeat back to her makes Kiara’s stomach twist in a fit of rage.

Kyne isn’t snarky, or bitchy, or an annoyingly deadpan cold-hearted bitch that drove Kiara mad with her inexpressiveness, least of all an ungrateful bitch that never appreciated anything Kiara did for her. She’s _not_. Kyne is sneaky glances and deadpan jokes, witty remarks and toothy grins she tries to pass up as annoyed smiles, she’s kindness and care disguised as unbotherness. And _God_ , she misses all of it.

She has also been praying non-stop that neither of those rumors have reached her parents yet. 

Kiara sighs. She hates that Rita is able to read her so well.

“Well, it’s not like I can get out of it,” she says after a long moment, “I already told them I’d go, and I’ve been avoiding family dinners for almost a month, so.” Kiara rests her chin in her palm, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

She had been purposefully avoiding her parents, mostly because their conversations always found a way to go back to Kyne one way or another, and Kiara was running out of excuses to give as to why they weren’t attached at the hip anymore. And after her mother’s insistence, she had agreed to go on Friday to have dinner… With Kyne.

It’s safe to say Kiara had been stressing over arriving at their door alone, rehearsing entire monologues with herself before going to sleep, while she brushed her teeth and even when she spaced out watching TV. She had gone back to the bad habit of chewing her nails whenever she thought about arriving alone on Friday and the awkwardness that will ensue after she drops the bomb.

Rita purses her lips, thinking. “You could have dinner with them and leave as soon as you’re finished.”

At that, Kiara cocked a brow. “Yeah, it might be easier to just cancel the whole thing,” she replies, and it isn’t that much of an exaggeration. 

Knowing her mom, if she opens the night with “I’ve been dumped by the only serious girlfriend you know of”, she won’t hesitate in consoling her like she did when she got her first heartbreak—with an endless pep talk, forcing sweets upon her and insisting she stays with them a few days until she feels better.

She remembers when the whole situation with Abril happened; she had just moved out, but she practically moved back in again after crying to her mother about it.

Rita looks at her, tapping her left foot on the floor, seemingly defeated. But it's Rita we're talking about, so she fixes a smile on her face and clasps her hands in front of her.

“Well, if you change your mind, or if you need help getting out of there, you know where to find us.” She winks at her, and leaves without saying another word. Kiara stares at the door for a second, wondering what’s gotten into her, before going back to reviewing the contract in her hands.

Kiara has the lingering feeling that Rita’s up to something, but she dismisses it in favor of trying to not fall asleep reading contract after contract.

***

Arriving at her parents’ door alone and with a forced smile goes as well as she expected.

Her mother cranes her neck to see if Kyne is coming behind her, but Kiara just pushes her way past the door and urges her in, prefacing everything with an awkward “I have to tell you something.” Rebecca looks at her with a cocked brow, before her expression morphs into a concerned one.

“Oh, honey,” she says, and Kiara gives a long-suffering sigh. “Did anything happen with Kyne? I haven’t seen you two together lately, and I thought--”

“ _Maman_ ,” Kiara cuts her off, already feeling her stomach churn. She sees her father at the end of the hallway and holds her breath. “I’ll explain it over dinner,” she says, knowing fully well she won’t be able to eat anything.

She catches her dad’s worried glance out of the corner of her eye as she pushes past the living room towards the kitchen. Her mother asks questions to which she doesn’t answer until they’re all seated at the table, and Kiara feels almost nauseous at the sight of food.

She tries to find the strength to say it more than once, but not a noise comes from her. Kiara doesn’t find it hard to break the news to them because they seemed to really like Kyne too—it’s more so that she hoped they could become a real couple, and the story of how they decided to fake date for one event and then kind of snowballed could be told as a funny, quirky story to break the ice at family gatherings.

Kiara really hoped she could bring Kyne as her real girlfriend, and now, she’s not even here as her fake one.

“Me and Kyne broke up some weeks ago,” she lets out in one breath, and has to repeat it a few times, slower, until her parents understand. Kiara immediately says that there aren’t hard feelings between them, that they broke up because they hit a wall and realized that maybe they were better off without each other. That yes, she’s sad, but she won’t be sad forever and that she wishes Kyne the best.

The truth blends in with lies better than she thought herself to be capable, as Kiara tries her best to protect Kyne’s job. She knows her parents wouldn’t be able to fire her just for breaking up with her, but when in doubt…

There’s a heavy silence, until her father speaks.

“Is that so, Kiki?” He questions, one eyebrow raised like when he knows she isn’t telling the truth. Kiara’s breath hitches in her throat—she knows her parents can tell when she’s bullshitting them, but in this particular case she hopes and prays she’s a convincing enough actress.

She may not be gunning for the Oscar, but if she gets her parents to believe her without asking too many questions, she’ll feel like she just won one.

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to-- to get over it. And I didn’t want to worry you, so I said nothing,” she lies with ease, digging nails in her palms as she takes a bite of the meatloaf.

Rebecca looks at her, not with the same look as her dad, but a softer one. She knows that look very well, and she’s already bracing herself for what’s to come.

Her mother goes on a tangent about how this isn’t the end of the world even if it feels like it, that one day she’ll find her person too, and proceeds to tell her again about how she and her dad met for the thousandth time. Kiara just pretends to hear, stuffing her mouth with the food and spacing out every so often.

Everything goes like she expected it to, and she doesn’t have the heart to leave when Rebecca brings out the dessert and tells her about her college boyfriends.

And if God’s timing is always right, Tynomi’s might just be better than His; she gets a phone call from her just when her mom was telling her about the daughter of one of her friends, that recently came out too and is a very nice girl.

“Could you be any more opportune?” Kiara says as a greeting, breathing out a sigh of relief when she locks the bathroom door. She hears Tynomi scoff on the other side of the line.

“Yeah, when you didn’t answer Rita’s texts after an hour we figured it was our calling from pulling you outta there,” Tynomi replies, and Kiara can almost see the shit-eating grin plastered on her face. She paces around the bathroom, chuckling.

“Are you actually going to drag me out of their house? That’d be easier than to come up with an excuse to leave.” 

There’s a short-lived pause, before Tynomi clicks her tongue. “Tell them you have to leave ‘cause we’re celebrating my birthday tonight, that you didn’t realize the hour or some shit,” she suggests, “Which, by the way, isn’t entirely false—I’m surprised you forgot my birthday tomorrow,” Tynomi comments, and Kiara can almost see her checking her nails as she said so, tone ever so casual.

Her eyes go wide as she gasps, face-palming herself. “Fuck, I’m so sorry ‘Nono, I had totally forgotten.” Her tone is apologetic and full of regret, she really didn’t mean to forget; life has been as hectic as it could be, and sometimes she even forgets basic things such as sleeping—lucky for her, Tynomi doesn’t make a big deal out of it, dismissing it with a laugh.

“I’ll forgive you if you get your ass out in, like, five minutes tops,” she says quizzically, and Kiara narrows her eyes.

“Wait—are you waiting outside already?” She asks, opening the door of the bathroom with a smile and her heart pounding in her ears. She hears Tynomi laugh along with someone in the background, probably Rita.

“You’ll find out if you come outside,” she simply says before hanging up, and Kiara rushes to the living room where her parents wait for her.

She tells them in a hurry that she forgot about her friend’s birthday, that she has to leave now to make it, and gives them a kiss on the cheek and a hug before she leaves. Her father hugs her tight, telling her to be careful, and it feels like an omen more than a warning.

Either way, Kiara brushes it off, and the first thing she sees when she steps outside is Tynomi and Rita laying against her car.

“Took you long enough,” Tynomi calls out, waving at her.

***

Everything happens in the blink of an eye.

They ride back to Kiara’s place to help her find something to wear, which considering the size of Kiara’s wardrobe shouldn’t be a task as hard as it is. It feels like a whole make-over montage, throwing clothes over their shoulders and trying things on over and over before they settle on something; a rhinestone dress she barely wore once with a cleavage so deep it would’ve scandalized her parents. Tynomi helps her with her hair, and Rita helps her find an eyeshadow design on her Pinterest board that’s subtle enough to be worn at a bar. 

There are lots of laughs, noise and dumb jokes thrown around as much as clothes, and all the uneasiness Kiara felt at the beginning of the night are all but forgotten. She would give a sappy speech about how much she loves her friends, but she knows their egos don’t need to be stroked any more.

They force Kiara to eat something before they leave when she comments how she hadn’t been able to stomach anything back at her parents’ house. Kiara isn’t sure when food deliveries got so fast, but she has a chicken hamburger before she can say it’s fine. 

It somehow feels like this was all planned out, but whatever, she doesn’t pay it much mind. It’s not unusual for Rita and Tynomi to plan their night outs with a concerning degree of perfection.

“How’d you find out about this bar?” Kiara wonders, fetching her keys and unplugging her phone from the charger.

“Someone from work told me about it, said she came with her friends some weekends ago and their sangria was the best thing she ever tasted,” Rita comments casually, trailing behind Kiara. “And it fills up fast, so we better get going.” She pushes her a bit, and Kiara cocks a brow at her eagerness. The bar must have the best sangria in Canada if Rita is this eager to go.

The drive is rather uneventful, and there’s a bit of back and forth between Tynomi and Kiara for free reign on the aux cord, though Rita settles it by grabbing it and taking over. Kiara wonders if there’ll ever be a day when Rita isn’t the one to settle their childish conflicts for them.

When they arrive, they have to circle around the block a few times to find a parking spot—the street is _packed_ , and just by taking a brief peek inside of the bar you could see inside it’s exploding with people. She winces slightly, mostly because she usually doesn’t like crowded places, but whatever, she’s already there, she’s all dolled up, she might as well make the most out of it. 

Finding an empty table is hard, and once they do it’s one crammed at the very back of the bar, near a door that leads to a patio for smokers. Rita decides to be the one to order the first round, leaving Tynomi and Kiara alone for what feels like an eternity.

“So how did dinner with your parents go?” Tynomi asks to break the ice, putting her phone down, and Kiara twirls a strand of curls on her index finger.

“It could’ve been worse, I guess,” she says, loud enough for her to hear over the noise but soft enough to get drowned by the dozens of voices and the music blasting on the speakers. “My mom had the five stages of grief in the span of an hour; had I known she’d like Kyne that much I would’ve kept my mouth shut.” Kiara makes the motion to rub her eyes, but then remembers her make-up, and ends up massaging her temples instead.

Tynomi scoffs, leaning over the table so she can hear her better. “Yeah, you know how moms can be. Mine still chastises me for letting go this lawyer I was going out with when I still thought I was straight.” She rolls her eyes, making Kiara laugh, “Speaking of Kyne—you haven’t talked to her at all since the, uh, “break up” right?” She questions, furrowing her brow, and Kiara visibly cringes.

“No, I haven’t, we’ve kinda been avoiding each other,” she admits, fidgeting with her fingers. It’s not technically true, though; she had avoided Kyne for the day when she decided to call it quits, but then Kyne had walked straight past her the next day without as much as a second glance, and Kiara, as petty as she can be, decided to not talk to her until Kyne decided to take the first step.

Weeks later, here they are, acting as if they never knew each other, much to her friends’ annoyance.

“ _Right_ ,” Tynomi continues, “Do you think you two could, like, go back to your lovey-dovey shit if you, y’know, talked like the adults you are?” She inquires slowly, with a tone that betrays nothing, and Kiara cocks a brow—she’s about to ask what she means by “lovey-dovey shit” and assure her on the same breath that there’s no way Kyne wants to talk with her, when Rita settles their drinks on the table.

Thankfully, they don’t bring up Kyne again, and Tynomi doesn’t push for an answer.

***

As much as Kiara really did like the sip of sangria Rita offered her, she takes it easy and nibbles on the same drink for what feels like the entire night. The fun stuff when you’re the designated driver. At least, she gets to be the one _seeing_ how her friends do and say stupid shit, instead of _being_ the one saying and doing stupid shit. 

Tynomi and Rita drag her to the bathroom in separate turns one too many times, and by Tynomi’s fourth time Kiara wonders if they’re plotting something; they always glance around, wary of everyone and everything, asking each and every time if she’s seen someone at the bar that caught her eye, with a tone that betrays nothing yet Kiara couldn't be more suspicious of. She says no, mostly because she’s not in the mood for picking someone up, and really, all of the women she’s encountered exude straight girl vibes.

It’s finally her turn to order another round, and as she perches herself against the counter waiting for the barman, her eyes roam around the room, trying to find any familiar faces, or just judging strangers’ fashion choices when— _she catches her glance_.

What are the odds that, out of all the bars in a city as big as this, out of all the people she could’ve made eye contact with, it happened to be Kyne the one standing at the other side of the bar, intensely staring back at her?

She snaps out of it when the barman places her order in front of her, Kiara pays him in a hurry and turns on her heels to return to her table. She feels Kyne’s piercing gaze on the back of her neck, but she tries to keep her composure for the love of all that’s holy.

When she returns, Tynomi and Rita are glued to their phones, with smug smiles that would make Kiara suspicious if she was a bit more cunning. She all but slams the drinks on the table, sitting down with a childish pout and her arms crossed. Her friends look at her with amusement, as if they know what just happened. But Kiara says nothing, just stares at her drink.

“What? Did something happen?” Rita ventures to ask, cocking a brow. Kiara scoffs, looking away. She can _feel_ someone’s gaze on her, and she’s not stupid, she knows who it is; she’d just rather act as if she didn’t see anything.

“Nothing at all,” she lies through gritted teeth, nibbling on her drink. Her friends share a look, and Rita goes back to her phone while Tynomi fishes something out of her purse.

“Hey, Kiki, can you keep me company while I smoke outside?” She asks, and Kiara cocks a brow in her direction.

“‘Nono, I literally just came back—”

“Just one cigarette, and then we’ll be back, I promise,” Tynomi bargains with a decided tone that leaves no room for questions. Kiara groans as she grabs her drink; they’re lucky she loves them.

Outside is definitely chiller, and Kiara instinctively takes a sip from her drink as she watches Tynomi lit up a cigarette. They perch themselves against the wall, not really far from the entrance, it isn’t as crowded as inside, but they still bump shoulders with other people more than once. They make small talk, and by the way Tynomi is sneaking glances towards the door, she could _swear_ she’s waiting to see someone. Kiara is about to ask her about it, wondering if she’s been making eye contact with another girl from the bar or something, but then she hears a voice all too familiar behind her.

“ _Heyyy_ , Tynomi! You got a light?” Priyanka’s voice booms through the patio, and before she knows it the architect is standing by Tynomi’s side, holding out a cigarette near to her lighter. “Oh, hi Kiara! Didn’t see you there,” she says cheerfully, and she waves without much energy.

“ _Wish I could say the same thing_.” Kiara’s ears perk up when she hears _that_ voice.

She whips her head around, narrowing her eyes, and sure enough, Kyne is standing behind her in all her glory, an unamused look on her face as she inspects her nails as if they’re the most interesting thing in the world.

She gulps. Hard. _Fuck_.

Kiara tries to recover quickly, to not let Kyne notice the way she affects her, so she cocks one of her perfectly painted eyebrows towards her, and she has no idea what possessed her, but she scoffs slightly before saying, “Well, those sure are some nice first words to say after you’ve been ignoring me for weeks.” She regrets it the moment she says it. Who can she blame for her stupid choice of words? The alcohol? Her cup is still full, and she doesn’t feel the least bit dizzy.

Kyne seems surprised that she heard her, but the surprise doesn’t last much; she glares at her, rolling her eyes with a sarcastic laugh. “As if _you_ didn’t ignore _me_ first! Jeez, whatever happened to “we’ll still be friends once our deal is over”?” She folds her arms, cocking a brow at her, and Kiara _wishes_ she were drunker. It would be easier to have this conversation, since she can practically smell the vodka in Kyne’s breath.

“I _tried_ to end things on a good note, but you stormed off! I _tried_ to give you your space, but then you went ahead and ignored me the next day. What was I supposed to do? Use my status as your boss and force you to talk to me?” She pinches the bridge of her nose, her drink all but forgotten as she hands it to Tynomi, “before I spill it everywhere,” she mutters, and if she weren’t so angry already she would’ve noticed the amused look Priyanka and Tynomi had; like they were watching their favorite soap opera instead of seeing their friends fight in the middle of a fucking smoking patio.

Kyne furrows her brow, folding her arms as she takes a step closer. Kiara stands still.

“I _didn’t_ storm off,” she says, though it sounds like she’s trying to convince herself more than Kiara. “I was upset and confused, and you acting like I wasn’t there when I went to pick you up for lunch didn’t help.” 

She tilts her head. Okay, that’s not what she thought she’d say. “Why were you upset? Calling it quits was _your_ idea,” she points out, “And I have no idea what you’re talking about. I had an emergency call and I had to pacify some architects and an investor, I never saw you waiting for me,” Kiara explains, and something in Kyne’s expression cracks. But as soon as it comes, it goes, and the scowl is soon back on her face.

“Whatever.” She waves a hand to dismiss the topic, but Kiara isn’t done yet.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“What question?” Kyne sounds defensive, taking some steps back; but the more she steps back, Kiara steps closer.

“Why were you upset? I understand being confused, since it was sudden, but _upset_?” She leans closer, her height being an advantage as her face ends up mere inches away from Kyne’s. “You suggested we quit days before, I thought you’d be happy to finally be getting rid of me.” She cocks a brow, waiting for an answer, and Kyne’s face betrays nothing—until she looks away, scoffing while what Kiara thinks is a blush creeps on her cheeks.

“I—I don’t owe you an explanation,” she says simply, giving her a daring look. Kiara would say that, yes, she probably does, since she was the one that wanted to quit and then got mad at her for doing what she wanted, but she isn’t able to get a word in before Kyne looks past her towards Priyanka. “Y’know? I think I’m just gonna leave.”

“Oh, well, make sure Bobo doesn’t do anything stupid while—”

“No, I mean I’m going home,” Kyne cuts her off, and Priyanka scrambles for an answer, but before she says anything to convince her, Kyne turns on her heels and goes back to the bar, albeit walking a little wobbly. 

Kiara stands there, perplexed, not really knowing what just happened. She turns around to meet Tynomi and Priyanka’s gaze. Tynomi is pinching the bridge of her nose, while Priyanka looks like she might strangle someone.

“Well, that sure went well,” Priyanka comments, folding her arms, and Tynomi scoffs. 

Tynomi looks at her with a pointed look, then towards the entrance, then back at her, seemingly hoping to not have to say anything before she catches up. “I think this is the part where you go after her,” she finally says, after Kiara just stands without moving an inch.

She blinks owlishly, before she realizes what she just said. “But—but she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

Priyanka groans, doing the motion of bashing her skull against the wall.

“Fucks _sake_ , not to talk shit about my best friend, but she’s been driving me crazy talking about you these past few weeks. Trust me, just go after her, I’m pretty sure you two will make up.”

“Or make out,” Tynomi points out with a shit-eating grin, and Kiara rolls her eyes, a blush creeping on her cheeks. As much as she’d like that, Kyne is drunk, and—

Oh. 

Oh shit. 

She can’t let her leave alone like that, can she?

Kiara sighs in defeat. 

“ _Fine_. But you and Rita will have to book an Uber.” She turns to leave, and she hears Priyanka saying there’s no need, that she’ll drive them home, and then is when it clicks on Kiara that they had probably orchestrated the whole thing. Jesus. That would make a lot more sense.

She walks past Rita, who merely watches her go without saying anything, elbows her way past the crowd and out to the street. She looks around before she finds Kyne some feet away, leaning on the wall and frowning at her phone. Kiara inhales deeply before she approaches her, and Kyne snaps her head up when she hears her footsteps.

“What are you—?”

“Listen, I know I’m probably the last person you wanna see right now,” she cuts her off, and Kyne seems a bit thrown off. “But I’m pretty sure it’s not safe to get a cab alone at night when you’re drunk. _Especially_ when you’re a woman,” Kiara points out, and Kyne narrows her eyes.

“So what? You wanna share a cab with me?” She inquiries, and Jesus, that would be so much easier. But Kiara shakes her head.

“No, I’m driving you home. My car is parked near here.” It’s more of an order than an offer, she’s sure Kyne can tell, because she crosses her arms and scoffs.

“What makes you think I’m gonna do what _you_ say?” She comes a step closer, wanting to be intimidating, but it doesn’t really work when she has to look up to meet Kiara’s gaze even while wearing heels. Kiara inhales sharply; there’s a million things she wants to say to that, but she’s not sure they’re appropriate for the moment.

“Because Priyanka would kill _me_ if I didn’t, and she would kill _you_ if you refuse,” she says matter-of-factly, and she sees Kyne wince, looking away.

“I _knew_ she was up to something,” she mutters with a scoff. She turns to look back at her almost indignantly, and rolls her eyes. “ _Fine_. Whatever. Lead the way.” Kyne pushes herself from the wall, and Kiara offers her arm for her to hang on. She refuses, but after a few steps she ends up accepting when she almost trips with the air.

It feels awfully familiar, yet so foreign at the same time.

***

The ride back to Kyne’s place is _awkward_. That’s the only word for it.

Kiara offers her the aux cord as an olive branch, Kyne refuses, and Kiara just settles for listening to the radio.

She tries to ask her how her night had been, Kyne merely replies with a dry “good,” and the conversation dies there.

She attempts to talk to her again when they find out the quickest road to Kyne’s place is blocked because of street repairs, and they’d have to take the long way. But Kyne prefers to ignore her.

Kiara decides to give up, letting the silence be interrupted by whatever song is playing on the radio. She notices how Kyne grips the seat on the curves, squeezing her eyes shut and inhaling sharply; she wishes she was capable of ignoring her, but it’s Kyne, and she can’t just ignore Kyne.

“You okay over there?” She asks politely, eyes firm on the road. Kyne grunts, letting her head fall against the window, her gaze transfixed on the streets.

“I’m just a bit nauseous, that’s all,” she musters, bracing her stomach with another wince, as Kiara turns to the left. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna puke in your car if you’re worried about that,” Kyne says, finally turning to see her.

“I’m more worried about you than the car, y’know,” Kiara admits before she can think much about it, and she feels her neck burn as Kyne shoots a small smile towards her. “I can slow down if you want me to.”

“No, it’s fine, as far as I’m concerned, I need you to go faster so I can stick my head down the toilet,” she says with a dry laugh, and Kiara chuckles, biting the inside of her cheek. 

They don’t exchange many words after that, only when Kiara checks in with Kyne and she replies with short sentences. Kiara considers it a victory that they’re civil enough to hold a conversation without being snarky, even if it’s for a small bit. When the road is drawing to an end and Kiara can see Kyne’s building, she feels a bit of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach—she wishes they didn’t have to part ways, but she supposes that this is better than nothing.

She parks in front in silence, turning to look at Kyne with a small smile. “You sure you’re okay?” She asks one last time, as Kyne pinches her cheeks and exhales. 

She opens the door, stands still for a second, tries to take a step, but then ends up climbing back into the car, shaking her head. 

“I still feel like the world is spinning,” she announces sheepishly, and Kiara can tell that tone in her voice means “ _I’m sorry to be a bother_.” So she’s quick to reassure her.

“I can walk with you to your door, I don’t mind,” she offers, leaving out the part where she says it wouldn’t be that strange to her; the night of the ball, she had an arm firmly placed around her waist, Kyne was leaning into her, and they were giggling like idiots and life was good.

Kyne looks at her through half-lidded eyes, stays silent for a second too long, and licks her lips before finally speaking. “I’m gonna be honest with you, I feel the vodka battling the pizza I had before, so I need someone to hold my hair while I puke my bad decisions out,” she says, blunt as ever, “Would you do me the honor of being that person?” Her tone is far too cheesy for the context, and Kiara laughs wholeheartedly, nodding as she climbs down the car and goes to offer Kyne her hand again.

She doesn’t dare to take her by the waist—not _yet_ —so she makes sure her grip on her hand is strong enough without hurting her. Kyne seems unbothered, rather concentrated in not tripping on air again, and if she leans onto Kiara more than once, Kiara says nothing about it, hoping she can’t hear her breath catching in her throat.

The elevator is filled with a thick silence, in which they’re on opposite sides, trying to mind their business, but Kiara can’t help to glance at Kyne with a sneaky smile as the girl checks herself in the mirrors, apparently unaware of her stare.

“You can just take a picture, y’know, it lasts longer.” 

_Apparently_.

She speaks with the calmest voice yet bears the most wicked of grins. Kiara scoffs, looking away, trying to hide her imminent blush behind her hair.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she says simply. She hears her giggle, and it’s such an intoxicating sound that she can just inhale sharply and mentally berate the elevator for taking so long.

“Sure, _Kiki_.” She cocks a brow at her, arms folded as she leans back on the mirror. 

Kiara acts as if she didn’t hear her use her pet name and instead twirls a strand of curls with her index finger.

The doors open and Kiara practically sprints out, while Kyne takes her sweet time pushing herself off the mirror and walking up to her, almost instantly latching onto her arm, pressing her cheek against her elbow. It takes all of Kiara’s willpower to appear unbothered by it.

Kyne produces her keys out of her pocket once they’re in front of her door, rushes Kiara inside and shuts it again. Kiara can barely say a word before she sees Kyne kick her heels and run towards the bathroom without crashing into furniture despite being dark. She laughs to herself; apparently she wasn’t lying about her intentions on letting her in.

She kicks off her heels too, rushing when she hears the noises from the bathroom. Kyne is already sitting by the toilet, hair sticking to her sweaty forehead and looking as if she dreads the moment she decided to drink that much. Kiara kneels next to her without saying anything, grabbing a fist full of her hair, and she has to chastise herself one too many times when she thinks this isn’t how she imagined she’d be pulling on her hair before.

She rubs circles on her back without saying anything, and after a long moment Kyne takes a deep breath and tries to stand alone. Kiara flushes the toilet and awkwardly stays there while Kyne hazaphardly takes off her make-up and brushes her teeth. Once she’s done, she takes a clean make-up wipe and sits back with her, taking her chin with her free hand.

“I figured you’d wanna take your make-up off too,” she explains, before she takes the wipe close to her face. Kiara just nods, and Kyne smiles satisfied as she cleans her face.

If Kiara didn’t know any better, she’d say she’s taking her time: not because she’s Kyne and she’s meticulous to the point it’s pathological, but because she’s tracing every line of her face with delicacy, prolonging their time together with an excuse as simple as that.

Kiara fidgets with her hands in silence, unsure of what to say, but like most of their conversations during the night, she says something impulsive just to break the ice.

“I’m sorry for breaking up with you like that,” she finally says, and it’s like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders. Kyne stops mid-movement, whole body tensing, and she sees her gulp before she resumes her work. 

“That’s fine, I’m sorry for snapping at you,” Kyne says softly, tracing the outline of her lips to get rid of her lipstick. Her gaze is transfixed on Kiara’s mouth, and if Kiara was a bit more courageous, she’d just pull her closer and seal their lips together.

Instead, she just inhales sharply and tries to keep her composure. “Do you—do you wanna talk about _why_ you were upset?” She asks, because she’s _itching_ to know. She wants to know if there’s the small chance they’re on the same page regarding their feelings, that maybe she too feels like the air has been knocked out of her lungs whenever they’re this close.

Kyne winces, visibly cringing. “Guess I can’t escape now, can I?” She says with a dreadful tone that she tries to hide with a humourless laugh. Kiara looks at her expectantly, and Kyne sighs. “ _Fine_ , you really wanna know?” She tosses the make-up wipe aside and leans back a bit, rubbing her eyelids. 

There’s silence for a moment too long, but Kiara doesn’t push her to talk, whatever it is that she’s building up the courage to say can either make Kiara see heaven or send her straight to hell, so she waits with bated breath.

And then she speaks.

“I was hoping we didn’t have to break up, or that at the very least it would take us a little more to do it,” she admits, but Kiara senses that it isn’t the end of it, so she just stays in silence, with her heart pounding in her ears. Kyne sighs heavily and bites her lower lip, squeezing her eyes shut before proceeding. “And—and I didn’t want to break up with you because I love you.”

Kiara isn’t sure she heard that right. She just stares at her, eyes growing wide as her breath hardens. She feels her face burn in flames, and it doesn’t help when Kyne meets her gaze and all she can see is earnesty.

When she remains silent, Kyne panics and starts to babble. “I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you earlier, but then one of my friends told me some of the rumors about you, and I didn’t want to believe them but it ended up causing me to snap at you anyway, and when I found out the truth and decided to tell you _again_ , you decided to call things off and I didn’t think it would be okay to tell you after that—”

“Kyne,” she cuts off her rant by reaching for her face and cupping it, the space between them growing smaller. Kyne is staring at her lips unabashedly, and it only makes Kiara want to lose control, but she can’t— _yet_. “I love you too. I’ve known I love you since the night at the ball, but I didn’t say anything ‘cause I didn’t want you to feel pressured to like me back—and the last time I had serious feelings for someone from the company didn’t _exactly_ end up well, so I was afraid history would repeat itself. But now…” Kiara leaves the words hanging in the air, sighing in defeat.

She furrows her brow, tilting her head slightly. “Yeah, about that, not that you owe me an explanation or anything, but I’ve heard the name Abril dropped in some of these rumors,” Kyne says slowly, carefully, but Kiara can’t help the wince that comes out of her.

“ _Oh_ ,” is all she manages to say, “Oh. Yeah. Abril, she, uh, she was my first girlfriend—or I _thought_ she was. It’s a complicated story.” She squeezes her eyes shut, and almost instantly she feels Kyne’s thumb softly stroking her cheek.

“You don’t have to tell me now if you don’t feel like it, I can wait,” she assures her, and Kiara relaxes under her touch, only then realizing how dangerously close their lips are, Kyne’s hot breath hitting her right in her face. And she doesn’t mind a single bit. “However, I don’t think I can wait any longer to do this--”

Kyne wastes no more time in grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her into a heated kiss. Kiara is shocked at first, but eagerly kisses her back, scooting herself closer. She’s dreamed of kissing Kyne more than she’ll ever admit to, dreamed of grabbing the back of her throat, with her hands finding her way into her hair and tugging just a _little_ bit on it to bring her closer, hoping Kyne’s hands find their way onto her waist to dig her nails on it while Kiara’s push her into a bed.

There’s no bed in sight here, but Kiara guesses she can’t complain, only to say close isn’t close enough, and that suddenly the temperature in the bathroom is unbearably hot, despite being partially leaning against the cold tiles.

She’s not sure at what point did Kyne end up on top of her, but it’s not like she doesn’t like it.

When they separate briefly to breathe, Kyne hides her face in the crook of her neck, breathing heavily, giving Kiara goosebumps.

“If I knew you’d do that, I would’ve talked to you sooner,” Kiara jokes out of breath, and she feels Kyne smile against her neck, giggling slightly.

“Yeah, we could’ve done a lot more stuff had we gotten out shit together earlier,” she says quizzically, and Kiara’s breath hitches in her throat.

“Well, first off, we’re not doing anything on your dirty bathroom floor,” she begins, ignoring Kyne’s offended gasp and “ _I cleaned it yesterday!_ ”. “Second, we’re not doing anything while you’re drunk,” Kiara points out, and Kyne whines loudly, but she merely chuckles. 

“You’re no fun,” she complains, sitting up and straddling her while folding her arms. Kiara wishes she could give in and just let Kyne do whatever she wants with her, but she likes to believe she still has some self-control.

“I’ll be more fun in the morning, pinky promise,” she tries to bargain, bringing a hand to her face and stroking her cheek, giving her a cheeky wink. Kyne rolls her eyes, but a tiny smile appears on her face either way.

“If you say so…” Kyne reluctantly gets up and sticks a hand out to help Kiara, and she gives her another kiss when their bodies bump against the other.

Kiara could get used to getting kisses from Kyne all the time.

Hand in hand, she finally gets to see Kyne’s bedroom—the walls are a baby blue, there’s a desk by the window neatly organized with little plastic figurines of a show she can’t recognize, bookshelves filled with books, photos scattered on the walls, a wardrobe in a corner and a bed in the middle of the room full of stuffed animals, with a nightstand on its side. 

Kyne lets her borrow a pijama, and despite her insistence that she can change there, Kiara still goes back to the bathroom to change her clothes. She fetches a glass of water; she’s pretty sure Kyne will need it in the morning. When she returns, Kyne is already tucked under the covers, looking fast asleep.

She slides next to her, leaving the glass on the nightstand and her dress at the feet of the bed, and almost immediately Kyne turns around to place her arm around her waist and tangle their legs together. Kiara chuckles, okay, so she’s not asleep.

“Kyne?” She whispers, Kyne hums in response. “Do you wanna go out on a real date someday?” Kiara asks, and that’s enough to make Kyne’s eyes snap open.

“I’d love that,” she musters, a wide smile spreading on her face as she places a kiss on her jaw. “I love _you_ ,” she says, softly and like a prayer, and Kiara sighs happily.

She never thought she’d be able to hear those words.

“I love you too,” she replies, making herself comfortable under the covers, holding her whole world in place as they sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can catch me on tumblr as @dollalpaca!! thanks for reading!!

**Author's Note:**

> I've rebranded and now I'm dollalpaca on tumblr, follow me if ya want


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